[GRASS-dev] GUI platforms

[Michael Barton]

True.

However, you need a way of communicating with the OS. And a repeated request
is to maintain a CLI for such communication. Hence, there needs to be a
terminal-like interface built into the the GUI where commands can be issued.

A further complicating factor is running GRASS under Windows. Even though
I'm not a big Windows fan, a LOT of people use this platform. It would be
great if GRASS could run in Window without the Cygwin emulator. There is a
version in development now that compiles under MinGW to create a
'Windows-native' GRASS. I assume that you can't issue Unix commands in that
environment. But you should be able to issue commands for Windows versions
of scripting languages like Python.

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

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



> From: David Finlayson <david.p.finlayson at gmail.com>
> Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 22:34:36 -0700
> To: Michael Barton <michael.barton at asu.edu>
> Cc: Trevor Wiens <twiens at interbaun.com>, grass developers list
> <grass-dev at grass.itc.it>
> Subject: Re: [GRASS-dev] GUI platforms
> 
>>> 2. Provide a CLI interface for GRASS program modules
>> 
>> Do we need to drop bash? If so a lot of existing modules and add on's
>> will go away or need to be ported for 6.3. Or do we envision providing
>> something like a language based shell (eg Python) as well as bash for
>> 6.3 to allow for transition and dropping shell programming for 6.4 or
>> 6.5 (I now way out in the future, but worth thinking about so we don't
>> make short term decisions that limit that vision).
> 
> GRASS doesn't just depend on an X11 display; it depends on Unix. You
> can't remove the Unix part and still have GRASS. Unix permiates GRASS
> to the core. The GUI should make it easier to use GRASS and Unix not
> try to replace it.