[GRASS-dev] discussion: replacing ps.map

[Jachym Cepicky]

hi

2007/3/27, tlaronde at polynum.com <tlaronde at polynum.com>:
> Hello,
>
> On Tue, Mar 27, 2007 at 04:50:51PM +0200, Jachym Cepicky wrote:
> > Hallo,
> >
> > [....]
> >
>
> I'd like the developers of my dear sibling project to explain me a
> couple of things.
>
> 1) How can you constantly repeat that you are not sufficiently numerous
> to maintain GRASS when the CERL team was mainly, as it seems from the
> copyrights, 4 men. How can you explain that KerGIS has kept everything,
> does not plan to throw out things, has added things, while there is only
> _1_ developer (part time developer since I have other products to
> develop too ; and progress is slow, but constant)? Do you simply
> claim---that would be valid---that open source is simply not efficient?

Correct me, if I'm wrong, but I would say, that currently, if you
would clue all part-developers together, you would not get more than 5
full time developers. Most of us have very small experience with C,
which is essential. GRASS has growed a bit, since the CERL times -
compared to this, I would expect, that the ratio between lines of code
and number of developers is significantly worst today.

>
>
> 2) How can the voiced majority claims "GPL rules", while at the very
> same time hurrying to "port" GRASS to Windows and trying to introduce
> (see below) other dependencies on not open source licences?

I do not know, what non-open source licence you are referring to?
MapServer has AFAIK MIT-like licence.

>
> 3) How can you propose to drop ps.map(1) while the MapServer
> alternative:
>         a) does not provide the same features as ps.map(1)---no legend, no
>         scalebar etc.---;

are we talking about same mapserver? http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu

>         b) relies on PDFlib Lite, that is a stripped down version of the
>         commercial PDFlib, whose licence would be suddenly acceptable while
>         you frown at OpenMotif or QT?

Sorry, I did not study licences of all possible dependencies, which
mapserver has. I saw, mapserver is able to produce PDF, which is nice
format to me. I agree, PS would be better. If this would mean to
install non-free library, we have to find another solution and I thank
you for your information.

>
> 4) How can you plan to "outsource" even more things, while what has made
> ESRI the leader, compared to the second in position, is the consistancy
> of the offer, that is components that fit together.

Once, we will have half of ESRI's developers, we can start to write
everything from scratch.

>
> If there was such thing as a standard format for interchange (there
> is one: STEP that is not very popular in the field), one could
> imagine the Unix approach:  combine several tools that do only
> "one" thing but do it well. GRASS would be the analysis workhorse,
> delegating map creation to another tool, and hardcopy creation to
> another one. Unfortunately, creating/modifying maps is not independant
> from the native format and the analysis (one has usage for
> interactively and in real time modifying a map when things are not
> what they are expected to be), that is these tools have to be
> integrated with GRASS.
>
> And if there is such a thing as a standard for hardcopy, this is not
> the interface but the language, that is PostScript (interfacing with
> other tools being made via this language).

I agree.

>
> The needs in hardcopy for GRASS/KerGIS do not require the full power of
> PS being implemented in the components, since one can always relieve on
> other really free programs to create specialized images (MetaPOST for
> example), and the GRASS tool has only to be able to include these images
> (eps) (and mind you, one solution of the MapServer PDF output is simply
> to embed a PNG rendering in a PDF wrapper...).
>
>
> As I have already wrote, KerGIS has strictly no interest in GRASS GPL
> going right against a wall. Unfortunately, I have sometimes the feeling,
> reading your mailing list, that you behave like a cloud of flies hitting
> the Windows(TM)...

I do not understand this, sorry. My English is too poor for this.

jachym

>
> --
> Thierry Laronde (Alceste) <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
>                  http://www.kergis.com/
> Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89  250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C
>


-- 
Jachym Cepicky
e-mail: jachym.cepicky gmail com
URL: http://les-ejk.cz
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