[GRASS-dev] GUI platforms

Glynn Clements glynn at gclements.plus.com
Tue May 23 03:58:11 EDT 2006


David Finlayson wrote:

> >> 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.

Not really. Most of the Unix-specific code in GRASS could easily be
supplemented with equivalent Windows code.

> 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.

If you're referring to command-line usage, that isn't Unix specific.
You can run bash (or csh, zsh etc) on Windows, or use cmd.exe (which
is a lot less capable than a Unix shell, but Windows users may be more
comfortable with it).

Also, one of the by-products of the GUI work will be to make existing
command-line modules more suitable for use in scripts. A common
problem with several modules is the use of the terminal for
question-and-answer interaction. Getting rid of that is necessary for
the GUI but will also benefit scripting.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>




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