[GRASS-dev] 6.4.0 -ending story

[Michael Barton]

On Jan 5, 2010, at 5:12 PM, grass-dev-request at lists.osgeo.org wrote:

> Message: 9
> Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 16:12:35 -0800 (PST)
> From: Hamish <hamish_b at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [GRASS-dev] 6.4.0 -ending story
> To: Markus Neteler <neteler at osgeo.org>
> Cc: GRASS developers list <grass-dev at lists.osgeo.org>
> Message-ID: <950601.40971.qm at web110006.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> IMHO it is much worse for the long term reputation of the software/us to
> ship 6.4.0 on windows with front-visible stuff broken than it is to
> delay. For brand new users a lot hinges on first impressions..
> and really, in the last months we have made a lot of progress on that.
> 
> so yeah, the delay is frustrating, but we are all busy & stuff is
> regularly improving to the point where we can say that this release will
> be closer to a x.y.1 than a x.y.0.
> 
> Michael:
>>> A big blocker was fixed yesterday - v.delauany broken on Mac and
>>> Windows.
> 
> (everyone needs to test the heck out of it now of course)
> 
> Markus:
>> I see:
>> A) winGRASS related:
>> 
>> * 580 WinGRASS: $GISBASE/etc/gui/scripts/ require something
>> like $(EXE) to run
>>  -> status unclear to me
> 
> hopefully now fixed in the last 24 hours.
> 
> 
>> * 759 r.patch non-functional in WinGRASS 6.4 svn on Vista
>>  -> awaiting guru comment
> Michael:
>>> This is due to security routines on *some* Vista systems.
> 
> I'm not totally convinced of our analysis of that (see my last comments
> in the bug report). but if the work-around does the trick that's good
> enough for the release notes.
> 
> 
>> * 809 v.db.addtable consistently fails in winGrass
>>  -> apparently not reproducable?
> Michael:
>>> This is caused by the scripting issues above IIRC.
> 
> I'm pretty sure it will be something else actually.
> 
> .. v.db.droptable is not in the wx menu system??
> 
> I just found that v.db.droptable fails with a not quoting spaces-in-
> pathnames bug.   curly brackets with ${path with spaces} is not enough
> to protect it when used as a command line argument!
> Also MS Windows requires that GIS_OPT_ and GIS_FLAG_ names be in caps.
> 
> hopefully now fixed in SVN. all v.db. and db. scripts need testing,
> they were added after the great shell script quoting audit.
> 
> there was another failure with grep:
> 
> grep '...' | cut -f1 -d:
> 
> but when the filename starts with C: you get "C" instead of the filename.
> 
> (`grep -l` is probably more appropriate there, but I'm not sure if it's
> portable)
> 
> 
>> * 843 v.digit broken on new WinGrass release
>>  -> contains a suggestion
> 
> Maris and Glynn are working to resolve this. Seems plausible that it
> will be backported and ready for final testing by next week.
> 
> 
>> B) Misc
>> * 72  PNG driver: boundary rendering is off by one
>> pixel
>>  -> awaiting guru comment
> Michael:
>>> Also only noticeable in special circumstances.
> 
> mmph. I notice it all the time. But but appears I'm the only one who does
> & it makes cringe, and I haven't had the time to spend the hours on it,
> so it's not a blocker. I just think it sucks whenever I want to do any
> really professional hardcopy output I've got to touch it up in the gimp.
> 
> 
>> * 384 wxGUI: vdigit crashes on a big map
>>  -> who can confirm?
> 
> ... ?
> 
>> * 461 v.to.db crashes on a shapefile connected with
>> v.external
>> -> still valid?
> 
> ... ?
> 
>> I personally vote for going ahead and publishing this week RC6
> 
> My vote is to wait for the v.digit stuff to get sorted out, and as
> soon as it is cut the RC.
> 

I agree with this. 6.4 will not be perfect (what is?). But with v.digit and scripting issues solved for Windows, it's very solid.

Michael