[GRASS-dev] CLI!=GUI

[Michael Barton]

On Nov 29, 2010, at 5:28 PM, <grass-dev-request at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:

> Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:26:20 +0100
> From: "Francesco P. Lovergine" <frankie at debian.org>
> Subject: Re: [GRASS-dev] CLI!=GUI
> To: Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>
> Cc: "Francesco P. Lovergine" <frankie at debian.org>,
>        grass-dev at lists.osgeo.org
> Message-ID: <20101129232620.GA6140 at frankie.is-a-geek.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 10:20:52PM +0000, Glynn Clements wrote:
>> 
>> Francesco P. Lovergine wrote:
>> 
>>> As said in another mail of mine, it is not a problem brute-splitting GUI
>>> dependencies (e.g. current squeeze release for 6.4 only *suggests*
>>> wxpython dependencies). Moving GUI-related binaries in different
>>> packages is a pain to maintain, but theoretically it can also be done.
>>> 
>>> It remains a brute hack anyway, which is a symptom of
>>> a fundamental design problem: the whole system is theoretically
>>> layered and modular, but in fact it cannot be really componentized
>>> in a *clean* way. Something I find basically disturbing and not
>>> elegant, sorry my purism.
>> 
>> You are really going to have to explain what you are talking about,
>> otherwise I (and possibly others) are going to conclude that you don't
>> have a clue and should just be ignored.
>> 
>> GRASS' structure is about as layered and modular as you can get. If
>> you install it on a system without GUI libraries, the only portions
>> which won't work are those which inherently cannot function without
>> those libraries (i.e. the GUI, digitiser, XDRIVER).
>> 
> 
> Something like:
> 
> make build-core | build-xdriver | build-wxgui | build-tkgui
> 
> make install-core | install-xdriver | install-wxgui | install-tkgui
> 
> would be more modular and clean. Of course, one can always now
> install the whole beast, use only what is of interest and avoid
> installing all dependencies. As said, it works too.
> But I - as packager - would prefer avoiding tons of silly reports
> about 'command X is not working because Y is missing' and installing
> most required dependencies for all commands provided.

This may work for folks on Linux but is incompatible with the way software is installed and used on Mac and Windows. I'm not sure that GRASS will even run on Windows without the GUI. Certainly xdrivers will not. 

Michael

> --
> Francesco P. Lovergine