[GRASS-dev] GRASS & QGIS: the future

[Paolo Cavallini]

Hi all.
I learned during dinner that GRASS7 RC1 is due very soon. This opens the
issue of its functioning in QGIS. IMHO:

* the qgis-grass-plugin might stop working (this has to be tested)
* some of the module options will be different
* new modules will not be available in QGIS.

I think we can deal with this in several ways:

* dropping the plugin, and concentrate the work on Processing
* upgrading both the plugin and Processing.

In the first case, we have two major issues:

* upgrading Processing GRASS modules
* changing the current Processing behaviour, avoiding the import-export
phase when piping consecutive GRASS commands; this makes GRASS modules
slower than the equivalent commands of other backends.

While the first issue can be solved easily by a couple of people in a
few days, the second one is more tricky, and requires hard coding skills.
In addition, we'll no longer be able to edit GRASS vectors directly.

In the second case, we'll have more work, and a not-so-nice duplication.

I would like to have an open discussion on this, avoiding things to just
happen, with the possible negative consequences.

All the best.
-- 
Paolo Cavallini - www.faunalia.eu
QGIS & PostGIS courses: http://www.faunalia.eu/training.html