[GRASSLIST:10420] Re: [GRASS5] gis manager 2 rc3 - bug fixes and updates

[David Finlayson]

On 2/19/06, Michael Barton <michael.barton at asu.edu> wrote:
> David,
>
> Thanks for working with the new gis.m. I should mention that the issues you
> raise about screen resizing, and several similar things, are fixed in the
> version I released on Friday.

The CVS mirror(?) I am using must be a day behind then, I updated and
recompiled  Saturday night (PST). I'll try again soon.

>
> That said, the general issues you raise are important. The problem with x
> displays and current GRASS modules is that there is no incentive for
> changing them if we continue to depend on x displays...kind of a chicken and
> egg situation. So  what I've tried to do is begin to create such an
> incentive. Nonetheless, if it is not used on a regular basis by many people,
> I'm not sure if it will be much of an incentive.
>

Fully understand the chicken and egg thing. I was just concerned that
this isn't as polished as d.m for day-to-day use (yet). And, if you
are adding features, isn't it still technically in beta? I sometimes
forget that the CVS version isn't the stable version of grass. So this
is probably only a semantic thing I should shut up about.


> Reliability is the one (important) place I am less certain of. I've been
> using the newest versions of the gism2 as I develop them. Originally, errors
> were unacceptably frequent for a piece of software as stable as GRASS. Over
> the past couple weeks, they've dropped to near zero for me on my Mac--about
> the same frequency as with the d.m (which occasionally froze too). But I'm
> not as informed first hand as to how it's fairing on Linux and
> Windows/Cygwin machines. Maciek has been very good in reporting errors under
> Linux, and several other people have been reporting regularly. Recently,
> most of the discussion has  turned to functionality and ease of
> use--suggesting that many/most of the bugs are cleared up.
>
> I don't have any reports under Windows/Cygwin yet. I'd like to hear these
> because Windows/Cygwin seemed to me to freeze up much more often than Mac
> and Linux when I've worked with students in labs over the past year. I've
> asked one of the RA's who uses Windows to see if he can run it through its
> paces. I seem to remember that you use Window and Cygwin, but could be
> mistaken. I'm wondering if the new version will be more stable in this
> environment because it does not depend on x11 emulation. Even more
> important, this GUI *should* work with the new Windows-native version of
> GRASS, under TclTk for Windows--providing access to nearly all of GRASS in
> this environment. But I need someone testing this new version of GRASS to
> test this GUI. If it works, it would be strong incentive to make it the
> default, at least in the Window-native environment. I hope that you will
> continue to test and report problems (and successes) as you encounter them.

Actually, I'm mainly on Linux, but I used to keep a windows laptop
with cygwin/grass installed. I will be doing that again soon. On that
note, I am really hoping the new gui will solve some long standing
Cygwin/GRASS issues:

1) The mouse polling thing with interactive commands nearly killed my
last windows laptop. It would lock up the mouse for 30 or more seconds
between mouse clicks. I always remember to "end" an interactive
command, even on Linux since it pegs the CPU, but on Cygwin's x win
implementation, it was nearly fatal to the system.

2) Please don't depend (I didn't say don't use ever) on a 3-button
mouse! Most laptop keypads only have 2 buttons! I can't use it without
bringing along a real 3-button mouse. That's hard to use on an
airplane or bus.

I would love to hear about your use of GRASS in classrooms in another thread.