[GRASS5] GRASS Add-ons

[Markus Neteler]

On Mon, Mar 13, 2006 at 03:41:55PM -0500, Helena Mitasova wrote:
> My question was about something different and it will be even more 
> pressing with the extensions - what will be the rules for extension 
> submission?
> e.g.
> - will everybody in world be allowed to submit ?

In general yes, but we need a submission manager to get out
tha "spam".

> - who will test the extensions - are users going to use them at their 
> own risk, will there be some incubation period when people will be able 
> to use it but it is not yet official extension,

We have to assure high quality. Maybe Benjamin's extension manager
will help?

> - how do you say whether
> "The program/script is non-distructive, well tested, documented
> and of some interest to the public."

Sorry - I just wanted to give an idea. "non-distructive" is really
important (I don't like scripts which erase my home dir).
Documented is nothing impossible. Well tested is hard, we could
says, well tested against Spearfish and other known datasets.

> I am talking from my own experience as I too often push for "unfinished" 
> stuff being submitted hoping that making it available will help to 
> finish it, this may work if there are 2-3 people like that, but with 
> many contributors with this behavior it could create a pretty big mess.
> If half of the submitted extensions do not work properly, this may 
> discourage people from using them at all (I have seen this happening 
> with ArcGIS extensions).

It's the release-often against the release-good-stuff paradigm.
Probably there is no solution. We have in fact to define
rules as exist in SUBMITTING and SUBMITTING_SCRIPTS.

Markus

> I will leave this for now and I am sure that it will come up when the 
> extension support becomes available.
> 
> Helena
> 
> 
> 
> -andMichael Barton wrote:
> >Markus and Helena,
> >
> >
> >On 3/13/06 6:14 AM, "Markus Neteler" <neteler at itc.it> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>On Sun, Mar 12, 2006 at 01:09:42PM -0700, Michael Barton wrote:
> >>
> >>>Helena,
> >>>
> >>>IMHO, the best solution to this is Benjamin Ducke's new GRASS Extensions
> >>>Manager (GEM). This is nearing final release.
> >>
> >>Would it make sense to develop the GRASS Extensions Manager in
> >>GRASS CVS?
> >
> >
> >Yes. I believe that Benjamin is planning to suggest this go into the CVS
> >when it finishes the next round of testing. If this could be part of the
> >GRASS standard distribution, it would open up GRASS to a wide variety of
> >contributions that did not need to depend on the GRASS CVS.
> >
> >
> >>...
> >>
> >>>On 3/11/06 10:49 PM, "Helena Mitasova" <hmitaso at unity.ncsu.edu> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>I have a question about Add-ons - Do we have any restrictions /
> >>>>official rules for what can go into GRASS add ons?
> >>>>
> >>>>http://grass.gdf-hannover.de/twiki/bin/view/GRASS/GrassAddOns
> >>
> >>I think that this is open to all GRASS contributors.
> >>The program/script should be non-distructive, well tested, documented
> >>and of some interest to the public.
> >>
> >>
> >>>>I noticed that quite a few useful modules are being developed (such
> >>>>as the below r.lake)
> >>>>and it would be great to have them submitted into add-ons so that
> >>>>people can see what
> >>>>is available, test it and if it is great and important it could be
> >>>>included into next release.
> >>>>Also - do we have any rules on when an add-on module can be submitted
> >>>>to CVS?
> >>
> >>Here it should be of general interest to the GRASS community,
> >>non-distructive, and well tested + documented. It also has
> >>to conform to the SUBMITTING rules.
> >>
> >>Markus
> >>
> >
> >
> >___________________________
> >Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
> >School of Human Evolution & Social Change
> >Arizona State University
> >Tempe, AZ  85287
> >
> >WWW - http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
> >Phone: 480-965-6262
> >Fax: 480-965-7671
> >
> 
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