Future direction (and a rant).

[Angus Carr]

Based on one day's return comments, people on this list see the
"arcviewization" of GRASS as a good possible thing.

I am not a tcltk programmer, so I don't know how doable the tcltk widget
to do a grass window is, but I am sure it is possible. Whether that is
the best approach, however, is an open question.

I think a radical redesign is required, personally. I do like the ideas
behind tcl/tkgrass, but I have never got it working, despite a couple of
efforts. It's not that I don't know how to get things working, it just
hasn't been worth my time, and it has always been slightly awkward to
me.

The radical redesign does not mean abandoning the command line, which I
would be loath to do. I like command lines, and it is with a command
line that I write and test scripts. I have the impression that everybody
involved likes the command line.

If we are to invent a multi-windowing, properly GUI system, we will need
to allow multiple concurrent sessions of GRASS, which is desirable
anyway, change the way windows are drawn on the screen, and modify the
parser. I'm sure that isn't all.

This is not a project to undertake without thought, and I don't want to
do it all myself. I think all the small improvements to the main
components of grass will improve the rest of the system too.

my personal pet idea is to change the system a little to allow GRASS
commands and video stuff and text stuff to pass down sockets, and then
decouple the display from the processing machine. This is of course a
basically silly idea, but I like it.

Angus Carr.