[GRASS-dev] [RFC] Glossary: GISDATABASE -> DATASTORE

[Hamish]

tlaronde at polynum.com wrote:
> 
> g.gisenv MAPSET=<some_name>
> 
> but
> g.gisenv LOCATION_NAME=<some_name>
> 
> and this is a frequent error to do:
> 
> g.gisenv LOCATION=<some_name>
> 
> And the user is right: there is a lack of symetry, and if we speak all
> along about a "location" (implied in the current DATASTORE), its name
> (and not its pathname) shall be set via LOCATION.

LOCATION makes more sense if doing it cleanly, but I believe it was
named something different (_NAME) to limit bugs during the transition.
There is always user confusion about shell variables vs. grass
variables, to have two different things using the same name would have
been bad.

As this variable isn't typically seen by the user (it is handled by the
g.mapset module in GRASS 6+), the extra _NAME part does more good than
harm I think. Call it a historically beneficial wart.

By GRASS 7 probably enough time has passed to rename it "LOCATION".


> To come back to the DATASTORE and to a comparison---that is useful for
> example in teaching---, the good thing is helping to find good ideas.
> In this case, KerGIS shall clearly (I don't know if GPL GRASS has
> already made this) implement:
> 
> g.dump(8)
> g.restore(8)
> 
> to dump a location in ascii, and to restore an ascii version of a
> location to the binary one. I use a lot CVS to store versions of the
> ascii gis files, and it will be a great archival/transfer even testing
> and debugging tool (to verify the basic functionnality of a fresh
> installation, g.restore spearfish for example).

is that just saving the projection settings & default region info found
in PERMANENT/, or is it a full "tar czf spearfish.tgz spearfish/" ?
r.out.ascii, v.out.ascii all maps?


Hamish