[GRASS-dev] r.mapcalc and g.remove --v/q issues

[Maciej Sieczka]

Glynn Clements wrote:

> Maciej Sieczka wrote:

>> Propably due to the recent work on --v and --q flags (great stuff, many
>> thanks to the authors!), r.mapcalc doesn't print any progress indicator
>> anymore.

> AFAIK, modules are quiet by default now. If you want verbosity (e.g.
> progress indication) you have to enable it.

I didn't realize that quiet mode implies no progress indicator. In that
case verbose should be the default IMO, because we can't leave users
without a feedback from the module progress unless they implicitely
requests that. Am I wrong?

> As r.mapcalc doesn't use G_parser(), --v won't work; you would need to
> set GRASS_VERBOSE.
> 
> There probably needs to be a "stub" version of G_parser() which
> implements the built-in switches (--help, --verbose etc) but doesn't
> attempt to parse the entire command line.
> 
> Changing the syntax of r.mapcalc to conform to the normal convention
> would probably be too radical a change. While we can fix our own
> scripts, there are likely to be a lot of home-grown scripts which
> would be broken (not to mention users who are accustomed to using the
> existing syntax from the command line).

If verbose would be the default that would also fix the problem of
no-progress in r.mapcalc by default.

>> Also g.remove doesn't return any info if trying to remove a
>> non-existant map. If used with --v it will print eg.:
>>
>> $ g.remove rast=dummy --v
>> REMOVE [dummy]
>> raster MISSING
>> header MISSING
>> category MISSING
>> color MISSING
>> history MISSING
>> misc MISSING
>> fcell MISSING
>> g3dcell MISSING
>>
>> as it used before introducing --q and --v. But if --v is not
>> explicitely set (default), it will remain silent.
>>
>> It should print "ERROR: raster map <dummy> not found" instead.

> Specifying a map which doesn't exist (one with no elements) has never
> been an error.

Not really, it is an error in case of vectors already. Try this:

$ g.remove vect=dummy

you'll get:

ERROR: Vector map <dummy> not found

$ echo $?
1

> At most, it should generate a warning if no elements
> are found.

Why shouldn't it generate an error? The user is trying to use a
non-existant map for the g.remove input. Other modules return an error
in such case. g.remove vect does the same. But g.remove
rast/rast3d/region/group doesn't. Shouldn't they conform?

Also, in the verbose mode, only a single-line information like "Raster
map <dummy> removed" should be printed insated of the current 9 lines:

$ g.remove rast=dummy --v
REMOVE [dummy]
raster
header
category
color MISSING
history
misc
fcell MISSING
g3dcell MISSING

BTW, I'd like to ask again what is the g3dcell?





Talking of g.remove - could the following types should be disposed in
GRASS 7?:

1. sites - there is no sites functionality in Grass>=5.7
2. region3d - 3D region settings have been merged into region
3. 3dview - remainment of Grass <5.7 3d.view command
4? icon - I don't know, propably too? what is it?
5. oldvect
6. asciivect

Same applies to g.copy/rename/list

?

Maciek