[GRASS5] Re: GRASS 5.3 release

[Michael Barton]

If you mean the scripts that are in the normal GRASS distribution, a 
week ago, I would have said yes, this is a problem. However, I was 
wrong about this. AFAICT, all scripts in 5.7 should work with 
5.3--except those that call special 5.7 vector features. Currently, 
these are very few. The only thing that needs to be changed is how some 
(a miniority) are referenced in the tcltkgrass GUI and the man pages 
for the same scripts. Markus suggested that it would help 5.7 
development it all essential scripts shared by 5.3 and 5.7 be located 
in the 5.7 CVS branch and represented by links in the 5.3 branch (I 
hope I have the terminology +/- correct here). I could  try to get some 
idea of how many scripts need tcltkgrass updates to use the 5.7 version 
over the next week if that is helpful.

For other scripts--i.e., those that individual GRASS users have 
developed but are not part of the regular release--some that may work 
in 5.3 may not work in 5.7 without some work but usually not a lot of 
work. This is not an issue for the release. IMHO, it would be a nice 
idea to have a script-writing tips page on the GRASS www site to lay 
out a set of basic GRASS script standards--e.g., bash scripting, use of 
g.parser headers, etc.--to get all scripts to a 5.7/5.3 compatible 
format. Perhaps I could try my hand at that this summer, along with the 
other related things.

Finally, there are some 5.3 scripts that don't yet work in 5.7 because 
they call GRASS modules that don't (yet) exist in 5.7. A good example 
is r.fill.nulls. It requires s.surf.rst. Because of the demise of the 
GRASS sites format, s.surf.rst does not exist in 5.7. And, unless 
something has been done in the last couple weeks while I've been 
focused on the end of semester chaos, there has yet to be a program 
using the vector-format points to take its place. Somehow, there needs 
to be a way to sort through these and say which are worth updating to 
5.7 and which are not. Again, however, this could be treated as a 'bug 
fix' later and shouldn't have any effect on the 5.3 release.

Michael
____________________
C. Michael Barton, Professor
School of Human Origins, Cultures, & Societies
PO Box 872402
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ  85287-2402
USA

Phone: 480-965-6262
Fax: 480-965-7671
www: <www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton>
On May 8, 2004, at 9:04 AM, Paul Kelly wrote:

> If as I understand it this means custom scripts etc. in existing 
> installations
> will not work due to the new syntax, IMHO I don't think this change 
> should
> be made so close to the release of 5.3 and should be left to 5.7.
>
> Paul
>