[GRASSGUI] standalone module use

[Michael Barton]

I just updated from the svn. There are several changes related to Œstand
alone¹ module use.

Now, if I type a command (e.g., r.info) on the wxgrass command line (i.e.,
at the bottom of the GIS Manager), nothing happens. Before these changes it
opened one of the modules.

Looking at the changes to menuform, it looks like the idea is to add a new
tab/page for command output.

Besides needing to fix the problem with the wxgrass command line, we need to
have a bit of discussion about how we envision command line use of GRASS.

Here is what I¹m beginning to think....

Linux always has a terminal.

Mac can have a terminal, but doesn¹t usually.

Windows doesn¹t normally have a terminal.

I guess, I¹d thought that we were including a place to type commands and get
output built into wxgrass so that we didn¹t have to worry about using a
terminal or not‹especially because it is not a normal features of Mac and
Windows platforms. That is, typing from a terminal outside of wxgrass is
certainly OK, but should not be required.

However, I think that output from grass commands run in the wxgrass GUI
environment should always go to the same place, regardless of how they are
launched. So that means that either the command output should go to a
command output tab on each module dialog OR to the single command output
window in the GIS Manager. It should not have to be directed to one place if
the module is launched from one command line and another place if it is
launched from another command line.

Having the module output show up IN the module notebook seems like a good
idea. But IMHO, if we go that way, then the output from a module dialog
should go there ALL the time. In that case, the only reason to have the
command output window in the GIS Manager is for shell commands and GRASS
commands run from the command line only (i.e., not from an autogenerated
dialog). In that case, we might as well get rid of the small command line
and turn the GIS Manager output window into a full Python terminal. This
would then be available on all platforms, obviating the need for a terminal
for GRASS. It will work the same and have access to the same abilities in
all platforms, regardless of whether they normally have a terminal window or
not.

What do you think?

Michael
__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton 

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