[GRASS-dev] GRASS & cygwin quite slow

[Michael Barton]

Moritz,

Currently, the GRASS TclTk GUI works without X11. Almost all GRASS modules
work without X11 or there is a TclTk replacement for critical modules.
v.digit is the only major exception now. NVIZ without X11 may still be in
transition. It still has problems on Intel Macs and I'm not sure about where
it is for Windows.

I hear that GRASS compiles under MinGW without X11.

What this all means is that with comparatively minimal work (compared to
rebuilding the entire GUI and any related links to C modules in wxPython),
GRASS **should** run natively under Windows with nearly all modules
functional. This ought to be a LOT faster than Cygwin.

We need some people to test and work on this. I believe that Glynn Clements
is working on it, but could probably use some collaborators.

I have very similar issues to yours. If we could get a native windows
version--for all the folks who prefer or are forced to use that platform--I
would have no problem justifying using GRASS in classes and getting
colleagues to try it. In many respects it is easier to use and teach than
ArcGIS.

Michael
 
__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton


> From: Moritz Lennert <mlennert at club.worldonline.be>
> Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2006 14:14:00 +0200
> To: Grass Developers List <grass-dev at grass.itc.it>
> Subject: [GRASS-dev] GRASS & cygwin quite slow
> 
> Hello,
> 
> (Please tell me if I should take this over to the grass-win list.)
> 
> After quite a long time of lobbying and a first presentation, my
> department here at the university is seriously thinking of moving
> towards GRASS, both for teaching and for research.
> 
> Now, several colleagues working in a MS Win environment would like to
> try GRASS. However, after having installed the Cygwin+GRASS combination
> (using the grass-cvs package from http://geni.ath.cx/grass.html) for
> several colleagues, I have noticed that GRASS is quite slow, at least
> diplaying vector maps. If I can't get this to speed up, it will be an
> immediate showstopper for most of my colleagues.
> 
> I know I could tell them to use QGIS, but currently, the capacities of
> QGIS in terms of vector mapping (which is what most of my colleagues do
> - currently mostly with ArcView) are just too limited compared to GRASS.
> The other option is obviously to wait for the new GRASS python
> interface. But as the dynamic is launched now, I would hate to tell
> people: GRASS is great, just wait a bit.
> 
> So: is the cygwin solution slow because of the cygwin layer in between ?
> Because of the X-server ? What might be a solution to speed things up ?
> 
> Moritz
> 
>