GrassWare

[Katarina Johnsson]

 To Patricia and others interested in GrassWare,

We purchased GrassWare a month or so ago, mainly to make it easier
for the occasional user to run GRASS.
We are running GRASS and GrassWare on Sparc 2's, one license per
CPU.
It was very straight forward to install GrassWare. No problems
whatsoever.
So far, we haven't really used GrassWare that much (summer, vacation..)
but I tested most of the functions when we installed it. Of course,
the interface makes it quite a bit easier to run GRASS. 

Neat features include: 
	2 versions of tha main menu, one using the GRASS module
	names (d.rast d.mon etc) and one using English names
	(display image, start graphics display etc). I find the
	English version quite good.

	The menu for handling the monitor is quite good

	It is convenient to choose file names from lists of
	available files. Saves a lot of typing(errors).

	The map calculator is implemented as a calculator (like the
	SUN or Macintosh calculator)

	It is possible to change mapset, location and database from
	within a GRASS session.

On the negative side, some of the menues are a bit inconsistent and
not quite 'natural' to use. It's is not always obvious where and
how to click to do what you want. 

GrassWare makes use of the command-line interface to GRASS commands.
For those commands that have to be run interactively, the user is
returned to the conventional Grass window to fill out forms and to
answer prompts.

It does not seem difficult to change menues and/or to build your 
own menues. It is a matter of writing scripts defining menu option 
and the actions that are to be carried out. I haven't done anything
in this area though.
\
Having GrassWare installed does not prevent you form running GRASS
the conventional way.

GrassWare comes with a set of manuals, but I haven't really looked
at them, so I can't tell if they're good or not.

To summarize, it seems to me that GrassWare does the things it is
supposed to do and so far we don't have any complaints.     

-Katarina

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Katarina Johnsson			e-mail: kjohnsso at alder.pfc.forestry.ca
Advanced Forest Technology Lab		phone:  (604) 363-6017
Pacific Forestry Centre			fax:    (604) 363-0775
Forestry Canada
Victoria, BC