[GRASS-dev] Wingrass and TclTk

[Benjamin Ducke]

Glynn Clements wrote:
> Moritz Lennert wrote:
> 
>> So, I still believe that:
>>
>> rem Path to the shell command
>> rem set GRASS_SH=c:\msys\1.0\bin\sh.exe
>>
>> is a better solution (since allowing the user to install what they want 
>> where they want) than

Yes, but often (especially my type of user), they don't know enough
to want anything (see below).
Anyway, a knowledgeable user can always adjust those vars by hand!

> 
> Agreed. The above is the only location where a Bourne shell is likely
> to be found. If it's anywhere else, the user will have to set it
> manually.

Or we supply it as part of the WinGRASS binary distribution! (see below)

> 
> The relative path will only work if grass63.bat is installed in
> c:\msys\1.0, so there's no benefit to using it.

Not quite. With the setup above, GRASS can be installed _anywhere_ on
the file system. The only prerequisite is that grass63.bat sits
in the same folder as the GRASS install dir.
E.g. on my harddisk I have grass63.bat in c:\WinGRASS\
and the GRASS dir (grass-6.3.cvs) in the same folder.

I then copied C:\msys\1.0\bin, dll and share
(at least the parts that I needed for using the shell) into
c:\WinGRASS.

This way, I have a completely self-contained GRASS distribution.
I can add more bits an pieces (such as R) easily as needed and
at the end, put everything into on ZIP for distribution.

I don't know what could be easier. Especially since this approach
does not interfere with an MSYS already installed on the user's
system.

Of course, in grass63.bat I need to make sure that
WINGRASS_REL=grass-6.3.cvs -- but that's all.

The benefit for the user is that only one .bat is visible in
the top dir: it's clear what to click on and there is no
searching in bin grass-6.3.cvs/bin or wherever to find
a startup-script.

Please keep in mind, that my Windows target users will often not
have the ability (or patience) to install MSYS by themselves and set
the appropriate vars in some obscure batch script -- they just
want to click and run GRASS!

Cheers,

Benjamin

-- 
Benjamin Ducke, M.A.
Archäoinformatik
(Archaeoinformation Science)
Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte
(Inst. of Prehistoric and Historic Archaeology)
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Johanna-Mestorf-Straße 2-6
D 24098 Kiel
Germany

Tel.: ++49 (0)431 880-3378 / -3379
Fax : ++49 (0)431 880-7300
www.uni-kiel.de/ufg