[GRASS5] GRASS Add-ons

[Roger Bivand]

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006, 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 ?
> - 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,
> - how do you say whether
> "The program/script is non-distructive, well tested, documented
> and of some interest to the public."
> 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).
> I will leave this for now and I am sure that it will come up when the 
> extension support becomes available.

The CRAN example from  R is worth examining, and is pretty demanding in 
terms of requiring submitted add-ons to pass specific tests, and to 
fulfill license requirements if distributed from CRAN. It has the benefit 
that the tests also reveal whether changes in GRASS CVS core would break 
contributed add-ons. It isn't substantive QA (it doesn't check whether the 
contributed code adequately implements what it claims to - the online JSS 
and R-News can do that if add-on (package) authors submit papers - only 
that it completes a set of tests on its code, documentation, and examples.

It's a lot of work, but is worth it when the add-on mechanism gathers 
momentum.

Roger

> 
> 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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-- 
Roger Bivand
Economic Geography Section, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of
Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen,
Norway. voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 95 43
e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no