Demise of GRASS

[W. Fredrick Limp]

Re: the DEATH of GRASS

Recently Greg Koerper wrote me in reference to the "future" of GRASS,
his letter and the initiating one from Jerry Eveden are attached below.

I have been avoiding the "future" of GRASS discussions because I
have spiraled into an e-mail discussion in the past and know
that this has all the makings of one without limit.  That
notwithstanding it does seem important to comment.  I will
probably ignore responses so that I can keep on with my 
non-virtural (eg. *real* ) life.

Let me caveat (aka Al Haig) my comments as follows:
I am a member of the OGF board and believe that what I am
about to say accurately reflects their position but I am
*not* speaking for the board, their heirs or pets.

1) GRASS is not dead nor will it die anytime soon.  Like in years even.

2) As announced by Kurt at the GRASS meeting "5 in 95"
   There will be a full release of GRASS 5.0 in 1995. It
   will have much more robust database linkages, new modeling
   stuff and many other keen things

3) CERL and NPS are, how shall we say, reducing, their involvement
   in GRASS. SCS isn's... if I understand its *increasing it*, at
   least for the immediate future.  OGF will be increasing some of
   its GRASS roles. 

4) Major software developments are comming from a number of centers
   to enhance the functional characteristics of GRASS.  Some, off
   the top of my head, in no special order, ones are the the really
   super work of Helena Mitasova et al in modeling, interpolation
   and visualization systems, enhancements by Bill Baker et al
   on his keen landscape analysis system (r.le), many things from
   a number of European venues etc etc etc...

5) I could go on but the point is --- if thats *dead* someone forgot
   to tell the corpse. 

It is true that the old friends at CERL won't all be there. Though
I think it will be likely that GRASS development will continue
but be directed only towards Army needs.  But hey, most of the
existing GRASS code was developed to meet army needs.  Yeah I know
I haven't been able to find any real use for the bnoise module
either but thats only one!  As GRASS plays an increasing role in agriculture
there will be some keen new tools for all of us to play with.  

There are some more basic issues to deal with here, though.  

One-- the if it ain't growing its dying.  This is a particularly
American view.  I call it the shark world view.  *Even* if there was
no development in GRASS, GRASS wouldn't be dying.  It and systems
built on top of it are being used every day.  Thats real life.  More
to the point, as grassu/l, gis-l etc. demonstrate there are a lot
of folks out there using GRASS.  They are a (zounds shades of the
70s) a silent majority.  Like Khorus and other really keen but
public packages there is no built in rah rah structure as there is for
commercial systems.  If it works and you can get it you do... end
of story.  You don't have to go to a desert city once a year and
have a religious experience at the users group.  No its not *that*
software.  As far as that goes have you tried to do some global
modeling.... tried another GIS... came back to GRASS did ya...
anyway we all need to keep in mind that a lot of software
development form the commercial side is really good stuff but
is also partly to keep sales up "GOSH you've got to get version
123.45 it has so many more features....".  Did you notice that
you didn' use all the ones in version 123.44 *anyway*!!!!!!!!  

Two -- there are lots of folks who would like to see dead grass.  Most
of these people live is deserts... if they liked GRASS would they have
a cactus yard? (Hey folks just kidding with these desert jokes -- but
they're too good to pass up).  Kidding aside there are a *lot* of
people who would like to have GRASS go away.  Check where you heard
the news and consider the source.

Three -- nothing is forever!  GRASS will go away.  Everthing does. 
Even systems with great market share die when the new developments
pass them by... anybody remember JCL, or FORTRAN or... not to mention
er .  Dbase or .... remember an installed based is the kiss of death. 

What *is* important is the ideas and (yes even) *IDEALS* that GRASS
design was built around and which drives the GRASSophile even today.
You all know what they are --- openness, expandability, interoperability
all that stuff.  GRASS really isn't a zillion  lines of c code.  Its
an idea on how to do spatial analysis better. That idea continues.
While to Open Geodata Interoperability Specification isn't GRASS now
nor will it *be* GRASS x.0, it continues the ideas, the ideals, that is 
GRASS. One day, not even real soon, but some day we will say
GRASS *is* dead, and then say "Long live GRASS"  

Hey guys code is code, people are people and ideas are ideas. Code
has a short lifespan, people middle but ideas can be forever.

In closing remember the following fortune:
What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists?  In that case, I
definitely overpaid for my carpet.
                -- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers
> 
> Fred,
> 
> Noting Gerald Evenden's message (included below):
> 
> OK, so I missed the last GRASS conference, but have things really gone this
> far?  I've gotten a few bits and pieces on this (saw Jim Westervelt at the
> Landscape Ecology conference in Tucson), and noted Marji Larson's departure,
> but had not thought the situation quite this gruesome.  I'm concerned that
> no one has responded to this posting with either clarification or an
> inspirational message.  What's your read on the future for GRASS?
> 
> greg
> 
> ******************************************************************************
> Greg Koerper                            Internet: greg at heart.cor.epa.gov
> ManTech Environmental Technology, Inc.  
> US EPA Environmental Research Lab	voice:	(503) 754-4490
> 200 SW 35th St., JSB                    fax:    (503) 754-4338
> Corvallis, OR   97333     
> ******************************************************************************
> 
> 
> ----- Begin Included Message -----
> 
> 
> >From grass-lists-owner at max.cecer.army.mil Tue May  3 18:25:42 1994
> Date: Tue, 3 May 94 21:45:27 EDT
> From: gie at charon.er.usgs.gov (Gerald I. Evenden)
> Sender: grass-lists-owner at max.cecer.army.mil
> Reply-To: grassu-list at max.cecer.army.mil
> Precedence: Bulk
> To: grassu-list at max.cecer.army.mil
> Subject: Demise of GRASS
> Content-Length: 1416
> X-Lines: 26
> 
> Given the last few notes about the funding status of GRASS, I believe
> the only remaining question is: where do we send the flowers?  Unless a
> package is growing, and people are actively feeding it with new ideas,
> methods and refining the old ones, it becomes senile and fades into
> oblivion.  Efforts to simply maintain it are nothing more than
> attaching IV's and a respirator---continuing the vital signs of
> something that will soon become brain-dead.
> 
> This is unfortunate because GRASS is one of the few, if not only,
> public domain GIS systems and thus provided a service for those lacking
> deep pockets.  By being open software, it also allow others to
> contribute procedures and methods more easily than allowed by
> proprietary systems and thus afforded a research environment for
> developing GIS tools.
> 
> I am sure that some readers will claim I am too hasty to bury GRASS
> and should wait until the body is cold.  But my conclusions on GRASS's
> status are meant to either shock those who do not see the significance
> of recent discussions or warn potential new users away from getting
> involved with a dying system.  A third alternative is to get some
> group interested in picking up where CERL has left off; but I
> do not feel that is likely.
> 
> 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
> 
> 
> ----- End Included Message -----
> 
> 


-- 
W. Fredrick Limp,   Director                     FAX: (501) 575-3846
CAST, Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies   TEL: (501) 575-6159     
12 Ozark Hall, University of Arkansas         
Fayetteville AR 72701                             fred at cast.uark.edu