[GRASS-dev] updates to grass startup

[Michael Barton]

On 12/13/06 4:10 AM, "Hamish" <hamish_nospam at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> now locations and mapsets are not sorted in alphabetical order.
> :/
> 

I wonder what changed this? Need to look back at the code. Maris?

>> Also, if we are going to have EPSG codes as a standard way to create a
>> new location (and I think this is a handy way to go), can we
>> distribute a copy of the EPSG file inside the GRASS directory
>> structure (e.g., in the infamous catchall etc or another directory)?
>> The EPSG file is ending up in different places on different
>> architectures making it difficult to find. If it was always in the
>> same place, within the GRASS hierarchy, it would be easy to make this
>> the default location for the GUI.
> 
> not for, but not strongly against, however:
> - The EPSG database and proj.4 are likely to be updated more often than
> GRASS is.
> - packagers should set --with-proj-share=, ./configure should give a
> clear error message if not found for home-brew. Tcl then finds this dir
> in the "PROJSHARE" variable.
> 

Point well taken. Still, I'm slightly in favor of including this small file
with GRASS to make using what is now an essential tool easier. Even if PROJ
is updated regularly, this doesn't mean that GRASS users update their PROJ
installation. So it's likely out of sync in many cases anyway. This is a
simple text file that is easy to drop into GRASS. But of course, who should
be the one to do it so that it doesn't get way out of date.

> 
>> Obviously the next thing to do is to make it searchable.
> 
> yes please, and auto-fill the highlighted value in the create dialogue.
> 

I'm working on that now. I figured that it would be a chore and so had
avoided it. It turns out that I was right, but I'm making progress.

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