[GRASS-dev] Creating a distribution of GRASS based tool MDiG on Windows

[Joel Pitt]

Hi all,

I'm currently seeking advice on the best way to distribute my
dispersal simulation framework called MDiG (Modular Dispersal in
GIS/GRASS - http://fruitionnz.com/mdig ). The website is a bit light
on details as it's primarily just me and a few other research groups
using it (although I've been trying to encourage people to contribute
to the wiki). Recently researchers confined to Windows have expressed
interest in using it...

There are a number of steps to provide users with a usable MDiG/GRASS
system on windows. They need MSYS and GRASS, they need various Python
dependencies for MDiG, and they need MDiG itself ... which consists of
a python packages and a collection of GRASS raster modules (all named
r.mdig.*). i.e. the steps here:

http://fruitionnz.com/mdig/index.php?title=Installation_on_Windows

In the past I've followed this guide to make a distribution of GRASS
that works in Windows:
http://www.webalice.it/marco.pasetti/grass/BuildFromSource.html

However, I used that over 2 years ago and I'm unsure whether it's
still current enough to work without hassle. Now it seems that GRASS
on Windows has matured quite a lot with daily snapshots built and
available here:

http://josef.fsv.cvut.cz/wingrass/grass65/

Upon further investigation, there are details for how to create these:

http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki/CompileOnWindows#CreatingaWinGRASSInstaller

... cool! What I think would be the best way to go forward is to
follow these latter instructions, and edit them so that they also
compile my GRASS modules at the same time.

The question is, do I then just take those modules once compiled and
refer MDiG users to the main winGRASS binary snapshots, distributing
my modules separately? I have very little experience with using
libraries in windows, so I'm wondering if separating my modules may
result in unresolved symbols or if I'll be mostly fine unless the
signatures of library methods or data structures change?

Another thing that seems to have developed alot is the Python
interface. I currently have Python module for carrying a variety of
commands through Grass using Popen and modifying environment
variables, but I guess one day I'll convert to using the official
GRASS Python interface.

Thanks for any help in advance,

Joel Pitt, PhD | http://ferrouswheel.me | +64 21 101 7308
NetEmpathy Co-founder | http://netempathy.com
OpenCog Developer | http://opencog.org
Board member, Humanity+ | http://humanityplus.org