[GRASS-dev] 6.4.0 blocker bugs

[Helena Mitasova]

On Jul 5, 2010, at 5:11 PM, Glynn Clements wrote:

> 
> Markus Neteler wrote:
> 
>>>>> time to get out 6.4.0final :-)
>>>> 
>>>> Please...
>>> 
>>> one huge +1 ...
>> 
>> I learned that we should await the ctypes port to get rid of SWIG?
> 
> SWIG is only used within GRASS for the wxGUI vdigit and nviz modules. 
> It's also used to generate wrappers for programmers who wish to access
> the libraries directly, but these aren't used by any part of GRASS.
> 
> I suggest disabling all of this in the final release. The vdigit and
> nviz modules don't work on Windows, and aren't particularly robust on
> other platforms (and being loaded in-process means that any problems
> affect the GUI as a whole, not just the vdigit/nviz modules).

Glynn, 
I assume you are talking about wxnviz here, not the TclTk based nviz
which runs on windows just fine?

I agree that it is really important to get 6.4 final released, especially given
that FOSS4G in Barcelona is coming soon

Helena 
> 
> The SWIG wrappers for the libraries are barely usable and are planned
> to be replaced, so we shouldn't be encouraging their use.
> 
> IOW:
> 
> 1. The "swig" directory should be removed from DIRS in the top-level
> Makefile, so it isn't built (unless the user builds it manually).
> 
> 2. Official binaries shouldn't use --with-python; this will prevent
> the vdigit and nviz modules from being built.
> 
> 3. Optionally back-port the ctypes wrappers (lib/python/ctypes). Even
> if this doesn't work (fails to build or generates broken wrappers), it
> shouldn't break anything which would otherwise work.
> 
> 4. Optionally back-port the ctypes-based nviz module (wxnviz.py). This
> has most of the same issues as nviz/vdigit (i.e. the GRASS libraries
> are being accessed directly from the GUI process, so a segfault or
> G_fatal_error() will kill the GUI), but not all of them.
> 
> 4b. Alternatively, back-port the changes but not wxnviz.py itself. The
> result is equivalent to just building --without-python (i.e. the GUI
> will try to import the wxnviz module, fail, and warn that it's
> disabled), except that the user can drop in wxnviz.py from SVN if they
> want to try it out.
> 
> -- 
> Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>
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