new mapgen compilation problems

[Gerald I. Evenden]

>Date: Tue, 5 Apr 94 07:43:53 MDT
>From: ront at niwot.CFNR.ColoState.EDU (Ronald Thomas)
>To: grassu-list at max.cecer.army.mil
>Subject: Re:  new mapgen compilation problems
>Organization: College of Natural Resources, Colo. State Univ.
>	...
>>
>>Lastly, some fairly low-tech oriented users have successfully installed
>>PROJ.4.x.
>>
>>Gerald (Jerry) I. Evenden   Internet: gie at charon.er.usgs.gov
>
>Obviously, my comments offended;

Not really.  My interests are to keep the facts straight.

>                                 while many programs are developed for
>seemless compilation under SunOS 4.1.3, making novice systems administators
>look like (and think) they actually know something about programming, 
>those of us struggling with SOLARIS 2.x have two choices;

The above implies that MAPGEN/PROJ were developed on a Sun, but that is
not true.  Most development was performed on non-Sun flavors of Unix,
usually SVR3 or 4.

The home system for PROJ.4 is SVR4.2.2 from Dell.  But prior to release,
the distribution package is "tried" on a SGI, Sun4.1.x, DG, DEC Ultrix and
AUX.  Unfortunately, nobody has made a SOLARIS available for testing
istallation.

>1)  Spend valuable hours away from the job at hand, which is developing a
>database and performing the support services for which we were hired, 
>while we attempt to change BSD code to SYSV code so that we can compile and
>use GRASS modules, or 
>
>2) do without some GRASStools that many take for granted as part of the 
>program.
>(r.poly still dies under SOLARIS, took me 2 days to 'guess' what changes to
>make to the r.tiff code). 
>
>Open-GIS is a wonderful concept, but working-GIS is a more relevant concept.
>I define success in my job by what I can do with the tools; not by how I
>overcame obstacles in getting the tools to work in the first place.

My suggestion here is to carefully weigh your priorities.  If you want
a turn-key system without having to spend some time with the intricacies of
installing public domain software, then I *strongly* suggest using a
commercial GIS system.  All public domain software that I am aware of
requires the installer to be reasonably aware of the details of his
own system and be able to tune/adjust problems that may appear in the
installation of source code on his system.

>Which brings me back to my original call for assistance:  if anyone can
>assist with the SOLARIS 2.x compilation of the SCS/MAPGEN-GRASS program,
>I'd sure appreciate the help.

As far as PROJ.4 installation is concerned, if you can make a SOLARIS
system available to me via ftp/telnet, I will down load the current
version of PROJ.4, install it and verify its functionality.  This is
contingent upon the availability of an ANSI compiler on said system and
that Sun has made some effort to provide a POSIX compatible libraries.
Also vi with xterm or vt100 termcap entry is required.

In terms of MAPGEN, I can look at what you have and if it is not
too bad (loaded with GRASSisms) I may be able to fix that installation.

That's all I can do.

>Ronald Thomas                                ront at meeker.cfnr.colostate.edu
> Natural Resource Spec. (GIS)         ^^^    Phone: 303-586-1285
>  Resources Management Division  ^^  ^^^^^   FAX: 303-586-1310
>   Rocky Mountain National Park ^^^ ^^^^^^^  Estes Park, CO  80517

Gerald (Jerry) I. Evenden   Internet: gie at charon.er.usgs.gov
voice: (508)563-6766          Postal: P.O. Box 1027
  fax: (508)457-2310                  N.Falmouth, MA 02556-1027