[GRASS-dev] Change in parser behavior?

[C Michael Barton]

We've just encountered a strange change in the way the GRASS parser interacts with BASH. It's not clear whether it's the parser, BASH, or something else.

Previoiusly, if a GUI field was described as

#% type: string

...whatever was entered was treated as a string, whether the entry was an alphabetic character string ("mymap") or a numeral ("50"). When the field was read, its value could be stored in a variable and then used. So entering 50 in an entry field defined as string would produce "50" when parsed.

Now, this doesn't seem to be the behavior of the parser and/or BASH. If 50 or "50" is entered into a field defined as #% type: string, it is ignored and the value of the parsed variable is empty, OR if there is a default value the default is used-even if the default value is numeric. So for the following entry from a BASH script..

#%option
#% key: myfield
#% type: string
#% description: A string field
#% required : yes

...if 50 is entered, $GIS_OPT_MYFIELD is empty

If there is a default, as below...

#%option
#% key: myfield
#% type: string
#% description: A string field
#% required : yes
#% answer : 1.5

... and 50 is entered, $GIS_OPT_MYFIELD is 1.5

I have not yet tested this on the Mac, but it is showing up in GRASS 6.5 (of a couple weeks back) in Ubuntu ver. 9.

Has anyone else encountered this?

Michael

__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
Director of Graduate Studies
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton