[GRASSLIST:4077] Re: [GRASS5] questions for updating tcltkgrass for 5.7

[Michael Barton]

Paolo,

Actually, it is more complicated than this. I have tcltk 8.4 and NVIZ runs
fine. This is also the case with tcltk on many other systems. What I've been
able to gather from watching the discussion is that tcltk 8.x is not the
same on all systems and there is a particular problem with 8.4 for a few
OS's not being completely compatible with tcltk on other OS's. This
incompatiblility among 'flavors' of tcltk is why I can't run GRASS under the
native Mac BSD tcltk. It is missing (or has different versions) of some
critical commands/functions. My (admittedly limited) understanding is that
something like this is also the case on a few Linux OS versions, perhaps
your too.

GRASS and NVIZ tries to be useable on as many systems as possible. And in
fact, it runs on a wider variety of OS's than any other GIS I know of.
However, it still doesn't run (or run smoothly) on ALL OS's out there. I
think NVIZ is set up to run on the most widely available versions of tcltk.
This means, of course, that it might not run on a few other versions.

NVIZ is still being updated actively. The last update in the CVS for NVIZ
was a week ago. However, my guess that to make it work on your particular
version of tcltk risks breaking it for a much larger number of tcltk
versions. This is the case with the Mac native tcltk. There is a project in
the works to move GRASS away from a tcltk interface and use a different GUI
platform. This may ultimately solve your issue--but of course could raise
new ones also.

It sounds from your message that you can make NVIZ work, but it requires
some special steps in the compiling. Rather than compile it on multiple
workstations, would it be possible to designate one workstation as the
compiler and then create binary packages that you can install on the rest of
your computers? Also, perhaps there is someone at your institution who has
sufficient knowledge to offer a patch that could broaden NVIZ's
compatibility with an even larger number of tcltk versions. If so, they
could work with the other developers to make this work. Best of luck to you.
I hope there will be a way to make this work better for you.

Michael




> From: Paolo Cavallini <cavallini at faunalia.it>
> Organization: Faunalia
> Reply-To: <cavallini at faunalia.it>
> Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2004 08:02:49 +0200
> To: Michael Barton <michael.barton at asu.edu>
> Subject: Re: [GRASS5] questions for updating tcltkgrass for 5.7
> 
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> Dear Michael,
> thanks a lot for the feedback. Lots of problems here: AFAIK, nviz developers
> somehow dematerialize, and apparently nobody is able to fix it - really
> embarassing! Installing old tcltk should not be enough: we should also
> compile grass with 8.3 instead of 8.4 (a bit too complicate and cumbersome
> for us, especially as we should redo it every week on several machines).
> So, my best bet now is to hope your skills will improve rapidly, and that you
> can do something to improve nviz (apart from bugs, I believe there is scope
> for improvement!).
> All the best.
> pc
> 
> At 07:47, martedì 03 agosto 2004 you presumably wrote:
>> Paolo,
>> 
>> I've followed this problem in the list, but haven't experienced it on my
>> Mac. Unfortunately, NVIZ is a much more complicated program than I have yet
>> learned to deal with. I wish I could be more helpful. Perhaps I will get
>> sufficiently proficient at this eventually. I'm not sure who the author is,
>> but he/she might show up in the file header somewhere.
>> 
>> I seem to remember some suggested fixes that worked for at least some
>> people. If I remember, it is necessary to install an earlier (8.3?) version
>> of wish. However, I seem to remember that this didn't work for you.
>> 
>> Note that on my Mac, I can't use the native tcltk, but must install an
>> xwindows version. You also may need to install another version of tcltk to
>> get NVIZ to work correctly. Sorry I'm not more help with this, but glad the
>> menus are helpful.
>> 
>> Michael
> - -- 
> Paolo Cavallini
> cavallini at faunalia.it            www.faunalia.it
> Piazza Garibaldi 5 - 56025 Pontedera (PI), Italy   Tel: (+39)348-3801953
> GPG key @: www.faunalia.it/Public_key_Paolo.asc
> Only free software: www.gnu.org / www.linux.org
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