[GRASS-dev] opening any RS/GIS file in their original format directly in GRASS...

[Michael Barton]

On Mar 13, 2008, at 7:38 PM, grass-dev-request at lists.osgeo.org wrote:

> Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:38:34 +0700
> From: "Yann Chemin" <yann.chemin at gmail.com>
> Subject: [GRASS-dev] opening any RS/GIS file in their original format
> 	directly in GRASS...
> To: "GRASS Developer Mailing List" <grass-dev at lists.osgeo.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<4f37eb890803131938l7f08d8ccwc0583a137c142cbe at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hello list,
>
> many first time users get a little bit "estranged" by the  
> scientifically
> robust way of starting GRASS by setting up a DB/location/mapset.
>
> While the "create location from georeferenced file" button in TCLTK  
> gui (not
> yet in wxpython it seems) is an very nice step,

This IS in wxPython. All kinds of location creation options are  
packaged together in a nice location creation wizard.

> I would like your ideas about the feasibility of a CLI command  
> similar to
> "grass63 rs_image.tif" or "grass63 shapfile.shp" possibly having a
> right-click option: "open with... => Grass63" like you can see in  
> many OSes
> these days.

The idea of opening a file from its original format into GRASS  
certainly seems convenient. However, a GIS is not a wordprocessor,  
making this a much more complex task that is appears. Still worth  
thinking about how to do it, but we need to recognize the difficulty  
of the task.

Note also that there is no CLI for Windows, and most Mac users don't  
know that they have a CLI.

>
> The idea would be to create a temporary location (if not already  
> there and
> compatible) from this image/GIS_cover data,  import it , load layer 
> (s), and
> display it(them).

The issues is THEN what to do with it? For a GIS to be useful (and  
not just a graphics program), all data layers need to be  
georeferenced properly. This has been the big sticking point.  
Programs like ArcGIS can be very misleading to users in this respect.

On the other hand, QGIS will open a shapefile on double-clicking the  
file and display it correctly (assuming it has proper georeferencing  
info). So this is doable for some data at least.

Michael