[GRASSLIST:5554] creating an arc/info route coverage in grass?

[grassgis at tenango.org]

Why I need this is below, it got long so the basic thing is -- can
someone give me a quick rundown or point me to a great tutorial with
which I can import a line shapefile, clean it up & snap the arcs &
add nodes at intersections, etc, and then generate a route system
which I can then export to .e00 (or Arc/INFO) for use w/an ArcView
class team project application?  trying to learn software I can't
practice at home is driving me so nuts i want to just teach myself
to use a database to generate .e00 files or something.  I can't
wait for this program to be over but in the meantime I've got to
complete it and find work so I can come home to GRASS and related
means to hopefully someday be liberated from the shackles of.. etc..

the longer version..

For a class project I need to create the initial route data structure
with topology so I can use it in ArcView to map point and linear mea-
sires from known points.  It's a really simple and small trail system
and I could hand-type the section and route tables myself if that was
enough.  I'm in a frustruating GIS program where the concepts and the
data models make perfect sense, there's just zilch for resources for
learning how to actually do it -- our textbooks only cover extremely
basic technique and we don't really have access to anyone to show us
anything that isn't straight out of the book.  So I've known for weeks
exactly what I need to learn how to do in order to wrap up this class
project but have consistently struck out with finding out how to do
what I want to do.  This is extremely aggrivated by not being able to
work on any of it at home.  Hence I'm absolutely nuts for GRASS GIS
and wish I could be in school learning that instead of a program that
chains me to a single proprietary system.  

So anyway, venting situational frustruation aside, I know with more
time I'll get to where I culd generate this coverage with GRASS and
export it to .e00 or something to pop into the ArcView project, but
it's a team project and until I can do this they're going with chop-
ping up the trails every 400' because we have GPS readings for these
points, and rather than map specific points or linear conditions from
the surveyed distances the trail maintenance class gives us, just
create a map that shows whether or not a condition exists along any
given 400' section of trail.

-- 
   never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake  -- napoleon