[GRASSLIST:5569] Re: cygwin installation

[Glynn Clements]

Andreas Lange wrote:

> there are two versions of the package on the server:
> wingrass_generic (without X server, but IHMO not fully functional)
> wingrass_xserver (requires X server, from cygwin or commercial X
> server).
> 
> The xserver version is still pre3, because i got from different postings
> the impression that there is no longer need for a X server version and
> that the generic version will be functional very soon. 
> Perhaps some clarification is needed, as i think it is too much work to
> support two versions. 

Well, the only differences should be in XDRIVER and mon.start.

However, the wingrass_generic package (libW11 based XDRIVER) is more
likely to have bugs, as libW11 doesn't get as much testing as the
"vanilla" XDRIVER (e.g. RGB rasters don't work in 5.0.1 due to a bug
in libW11's implementation of XCreateImage())

Also, you still need an X server if you want to use tcltkgrass or
NVIZ.

Ideally we should provide a package which contains just the alternate
XDRIVER and mon.start programs, rather than two complete GRASS
distributions.

Ultimately, the libW11-based XDRIVER should be replaced with a
native[1] Win32 driver. This wouldn't be that much work (XDRIVER is
only around 2400 lines of code), and the end result should be more
reliable than libW11's Xlib-on-Win32 emulation.

[1] Native in the sense of using the Win32 GUI (drawing and event
handling) API. It would still need to use Cygwin, as Windows itself
doesn't support AF_UNIX sockets.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn.clements at virgin.net>