TCL/TK and GRASS

[Mark P. Line]

On Thu, 3 Mar 1994, Mr J D Stocks wrote:

> How many people out there are using xgrass as compared with normal
> command line grass?

I'm pretty effectively boycotting XGRASS, since Motif would be the first
and only proprietary software in my whole (Linux-based) installation. I'm
very interested in a non-proprietary GUI for GRASS, though.

> I wanted to use xgrass very much, but I didnt want to buy Motif. It 
> prevents grass from being a truly free public domain package.

Ah. Great minds think alike.

> What moves are there to develop a tcl/tk interface?
> 
> I ask because if no one wants to do it, then I will start to investigate
> the tcl/tk package, with a view to writing one.

I have started investigating Tcl/Tk and one other public-domain, X-based GUI
development environment, with a view to developing part of a GRASS GUI.
This looks like we have a clear need for teamwork. Fine by me.

>What do others feel about this? I haven't heard much since Dave Gerdes
>posting a few weeks ago about the tcl/tk workshop.
>
>I won't be able to write it until about May/June, when my current
>commitments will change, but what do others think? I don't want to
>re-invent any wheels. 

Most importantly, I think we need to ascertain what kinds of GUI
styles/paradigms are in greatest demand. Personally, I favor the
drag-and-drop/popup-menu object-oriented style, which would lend itself to
a lot of GRASS. Others might favor a more straightforward orientation
around the GRASS command-line interface. Then there is the functional
dataflow style as found in Khoros and AVS, which would be the most elegant
means of encapsulating the current philosophy of GRASS in a GUI, perhaps,
but also the most work to develop. 

I'd be more than happy to talk about teaming up with one or more people
interested in collaborating on a truly public-domain GRASS GUI, based on
whatever PD development platform the team were to decide upon. I'm
inclined to favor Tcl/Tk over anything else I've seen so far, but I'll
know more in a couple of weeks.

I recall that Nancy Taaffe posted that GRASS 4.2 is supposed to include a
(new?) object-oriented GUI. Anybody know more about that? Nancy?

-- Mark

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Mark P. Line                       Phone: +1-206-733-6040
Open Pathways                        Fax: +1-206-733-6040
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