[GRASS5] Re: GRASS releases

[Michael Barton]

I very much agree with Markus!

I am days at most from finishing the new menus for GRASS 5.3

I am using 5.3 all the time with absolutely no problem. Given the  
recent fixes in the Cygwin version, I think it should be released.

I also agree that 5.7 should be released as wide-release beta for GRASS  
6. I haven't used it much over the past few months, as I've been  
focusing on 5.3 for teaching and menu development. However, I will  
certainly be switching my use and efforts to 5.7 in the very near  
future. IMHO, the new vector model gives vectors in GRASS the same  
high-octane horsepower as the raster model in 5.3. When the last of the  
(seemingly very few) bugs are ironed out and the GUI finished, it will  
be a very compelling alternative to any GIS on the market. More people  
should have a chance to try it out and participate in the beta testing.

A question: given the numbering scheme proposed for the GRASS roadmap,  
would the final release of what is now GRASS 5.3 be GRASS 5.4 (odd  
numbers being in-development versions, and even numbers being final  
released versions)?

Michael Barton


On Thursday, March 18, 2004, at 02:45  AM, grass5-request at grass.itc.it  
wrote:

> From: Markus Neteler <neteler at itc.it>
> Date: Wed Mar 17, 2004  5:54:38  AM America/Phoenix
> To: grass5 developers list <grass5 at grass.itc.it>
> Subject: [GRASS5] GRASS releases - some remarks
>
>
> Hello developers,
>
> another time I have received new developed source code
> based on GRASS 5.0 - in this case the internationalization
> of tcltkgrass and NVIZ.
> I feel that we either need a release of 5.3 or that
> we should somehow modify the web pages to make clear
> that new developments should be at least based
> on 5.3 (for vectors: 5.7).
> Also, as posted earlier, I received other comments that
> without an official release (of 5.3) they would stick
> with 5.0.
>
> Sounds a bit unfortunate to me, so let me put again
> into discussion the suggestion to publish a 5.3.0 version.
>
> [hey: 5.3 indicates *development*]
>
> Look at the statistics (only HTTP, rsync/FTP not included):
> http://grass.itc.it/webalizer/usage_200402.html#TOPURLS
>
> -> Top 10 of 59396 Total URLs By KBytes (Feb 2004)
> # hits
> 1 430 /grass5/binary/linux/grass5.0.3_i686-pc-linux-gnu_bin.tar.gz
> 2 353  
> /grass5/binary/windows_cygnus/wingrass_generic/grass5.0.2_i686-pc- 
> cygwin_bin.tar.gz
> 3 283  
> /grass5/binary/windows_cygnus/wingrass_xserver/grass5.0.3_i686-pc- 
> cygwin_bin.tar.gz
> 4 388 /grass5/source/grass-5.0.3_src.tar.gz
> 5 173  
> /grass5/binary/mac_os_x/grass5.0.2_powerpc-apple-darwin6.5_bin.tar.bz2
> 7 104 /grass5/source/grass-5.0.0_src.tar.gz
> 9  62 /grass5/source/grass-5.0.2_src.tar.gz
>
> I can only see 5.0.x downloads in the TOP10 list.
>
> While the nice features are in 5.7, most developers work in 5.3
> and the users download 5.0 :-)
>
> We should improve the situation and make available at least 5.3
> to a wider audience.
>
> Markus
>
>
>
______________________________
Michael Barton, Professor & Curator
Department of Anthropology
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ  85287-2402
USA

voice: 480-965-6262; fax: 480-965-7671