[GRASS5] Re: [Fwd: whinging about GRASS again]

[Joel Peter William Pitt]

A general comment about GRASS and its learning curve:

I started using GRASS about 7 months ago, at which point
I had *no* experience with GIS, mapping or projections.
So what did I do: I learnt it by reading books. I'm glad I did
as well, because if I started using something like ArcGIS,
sure I'd be able to do things quicker initially, but have no
clue about what a projection or geogrpahic datum actually
was.

I think the learning curve is a good thing. I'm just about to
get into coding for GRASS, and I have some niggling doubts
about the overall structure (such as whether NVIZ has a library
which external apps can link to for doing 3d visualisation),
I'll wait until I've learnt more.

Also I think that the GUI could use work (such as: GRASS
should drop TK for the graphics and use wxWidgets), but
as others have mentioned, GRASS is the underlying engine
for GIS operations and analysis, not a GUI.

Joel