Forestry and Grass + scripts for models

[Pete St. Onge]

>> Finally, I explored the possibility of using Splus (R is now a
>> free alternative and mostly compatible) programs, as Splus (or R)
>> can issue OS commands. Therefore, it is possible, from within an
>> Splus program, run i.e. r.stats and read in the result into an S
>> array and make computations. But the communication is through
>> files.

> I've know of S-Plus and I just discovered R. I think that it
> would be ideal to link GRASS and R for analytical purposes.

Alternatively, R has a batch mode that can be called from the shell. You
could actually build an R script programetrically from another app once
the data files have been created, then launch R to do batch processing
by running the script.

Since you can hack away at the base libraries by definition (they are in
the R language after all), you can get the specific output you are
looking for - I'm doing exactly athat now with the linear analysis
functions. So customizing R could also be an option to facilitate
particular analysis or graphing needs, as well as the integration of the
results back into GRASS.

Perhaps more relevant to GRASS users is a documentation project for R
that is still in planning stages, which will be aimed at producing short
but useful 'task help' documents to explain common R tasks, with a focus
towards specific user communities. I can follow up with a post as this
project develops.

Cheers,

Pete

-- 
Pete St. Onge
pete at seul.org