[GRASSLIST:1195] Re: creating a desktop GIS application using GRASS

[Gustavo Alcides Concheiro Perez]

Bernhard Reiter wrote:

 >[Linux/GNU/Unix] This statements lacks some precision in the terminology
> which do not seem to be important at first sight, but at second.
> The operating would be more properly called GNU/Linux
> as the plan to create something like it was set up in September 1983.

I'm fully aware of that.  In fact, I share many of RMS views, and 
*never* user ``open source'' when I mena free software.  Again, it's 
irrelevant for most practical purposes even free software == Linux. 
That's what people know.  RMS will choke in his bilis, but until GNU has 
a kernel of its own, it will be Linux, and probably even after that.  I 
can already hear the ``Hurd Linux''.  Not my fault! :)


> And GNU stands for "GNU is not Unix", thus it isn't a Unix,
> which many people tend to ignore makeing them vulnerable to smear
> campaigns like SCO's.

I have to disagree with that.  SCO's new bussiness model is playing the 
mob and trying to collect protection money.  Whoever pays attention to 
them is playing into their hands, Unix or not Unix.


> Note that you are actually talking about proprietary Unix implementations,
> because Free Software can also be commercial, depending on the quality
> and whether its development was done for money.

You are right.  Thanks for the correction.  Let's say free vs. non-free.


> Apard form this I of course agree, Free Software is needed
> to keep important cultural techniques in the hand of the public.

Oh yes...


> Note that many proprietary GIS vendors are trying to sell people more 
> than they need and call it GIS. 

Like some company which name starts with ``ES'' and ends in ``RI''. 
Yeah, I know.  That's why I'd like to see this simpleGRASS.
On the other hand, I know people have bougth Pentium4s for writing memos 
(while in the same building, heavy-duty GIS is being run on P3).


> It started when the called an interactive geodata viewer "Desktop GIS".
> So many people basically expect an interactive geodata viewer with additional 
> capabilities when they think of GIS. That is a promise that GRASS
> as a full blown GIS has problems to fulfill.

I agree.  Marketroids are a devilish breed of the orcs! :-P
And it works.  Around here, most people believe GIS draws maps.  That's 
why I believe giving them just that with a simpleGRASS will help so much.


> You might have seen that we've already have GRASS on several
> live running CDs. The problem mainly is in the data.

I do have to disagree on this.  I've tried one of those CDs (the one 
that *would* download!).  Not for the faint of heart.  Sure, data is 
missing.  But the familiarization is a rough time, even more so for 
people who are using Linux first time.  Sorta diving onto concrete. 
*Command line*, you said????????????????????????

You have to see a Mac luser confronted with a CLI---they either storm 
away angry as hell or they wet their pants.  Then they go and buy a 
`Desktop GIS'!


> We welcome your help. :)

I wish!  Really, I want but can't.  Best I can afford right now is lead 
people to try GRASS, and to help newbies pass the hump.   But I do want 
to do more, at least tranlating docs.  Alas, life is hard, and being 
born poor is a crime punished by forced labor for life :-/

I've this idea of a Debian-Science going around my mind lately. 
Particularly, the inspiration (negative, I mean) is phylogenetics 
software, which is a nighmare that defies belief (24 different file 
formats for DNA sequence alone!).   I think that'd be a good way to go 
for GRASS, too.  And data could be packaged as debs, and would set 
themselves up automatically on demand.  Perhaps even fully functional 
PostGIS databases.

Anyone interested? :)


Best, Gustavo.