[GRASS-dev] Re: diff to start wingrass with GUI + com.exe terminal [was: Re: [winGRASS] (no subject)]

[Paul Kelly]

Hello Moritz
(Cc grass-dev; sorry I'm not subscribed to the wingrass list)

On Mon, 21 May 2007, Moritz Lennert wrote:

> On 21/05/07 02:27, Moritz Lennert wrote:
>> Paul,
>> 
>> The attached diff makes it possible to launch GRASS in GUI mode with an
>> accessible cmd.exe window by simply clicking on grass63.bat.
>> 
>> This makes winGRASS look a bit more like *nix GRASS in that it allows
>> access to both the GUI and the command line at the same time. Until now,
>> the only way to get this was to launch GRASS in text mode from the cmd.exe
>> command line.
>> 
>> Anything against me committing this ?
>
> Just after shutting down my computer I realised that this probably only works 
> on my machine because I have msys installed and the msys lib&bin in my path, 
> so it probably is not a generalisable idea... Will have to try tonight when 
> I'm in front of a Win machine again.

Yes launching gis.m using the "gis.m" shell script depends on having a 
shell interpreter - that's why init.bat runs "gm.tcl" directly.

But it wouldn't be too hard to re-arrange init.bat to have a 
command-line GRASS session also open when the GUI was running. At the 
minute there's a redundant cmd.exe Window running in the background 
anyway, but I was hoping to hide it. The idea being you really don't need 
it and I thought it was a bit messy they way it stays open when you're 
running Init.sh rather than init.bat.

But, I suppose maybe it would be a gentle introduction to command-line 
GRASS for Windows users if the other Window was open in the background and 
they were able to use it. It would complicate things though, as they would 
have to type exit in the command-line Window to exit it *after* shutting 
down gis.m; I worry that it would make GRASS look cumbersome and awkward. 
Was thinking perhaps an option button in gis_set.tcl (the first Tcl/Tk 
window that allows you to select the location) to open either GUI or 
Command-line Windows or both might be a nice idea?

I was going by the thinking that it was a historical accident that GUI and 
command-line were available at the same time with Init.sh, and with 
improvements to the GUI it would eventually incorporate a sort of 
command-line interface (like an improved gronsole.tcl) and a separate 
command-line Window wouldn't be necessary, but if we feel that it's good 
to have it there to emphasis the power of GRASS then we can definitely put 
it into init.bat too.

Paul