[GRASS-dev] GRASS & QGIS: the future

[Markus Neteler]

Hi Paolo,

(note: I'm not ready qgis-dev, not sure if this email reaches it)

On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 11:18 AM, Paolo Cavallini <cavallini at faunalia.it> wrote:
> 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

For the time being people can certainly continue to work with GRASS 6.

I think that the plugin needs to be "cloned" for GRASS 7.

> * new modules will not be available in QGIS.

There might be only a few which could be of interest here (e.g. the
highly specialized evapotranspiration modules not but some others
yes). For an overview, see

http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki/Grass7/NewFeatures

> 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.

(the second: yes)

> In the first case, we have two major issues:
>
> * upgrading Processing GRASS modules

I'll do that. I already started with Pirmin and Victor to discuss it.

> * 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.

... this would not be a good idea.

> 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.


I expect that we'll come up with a "Processing" prototype for which
supports GRASS 7 soon.

Best
Markus