[GRASS-user] problem installing perl mapscript for grass 6.2.1-3 on ubuntu Feisty Fawn

[Lowell.Filak]

[ISO-8859-1] Micha�l Rabotin writes: 

> Hi everybody,
> to run a perl script I need to install a per module: perl-mapscript. I'm 
> on
> Ubuntu  Feisty Fawn with grass 6.2.1-3.
> When I use synaptic to install perl-mapscript, it said that I need to
> remove grass to install perl-mapscript.
> If I remove grass and install perl-mapscript, and I want to reinstall 
> grass,
> it said that I need to remove perl-mapscript. I can't have the both in my 
> pc
> Is anybody know how to do to install perl-mapscript to use with grass
> PS: I need perl-mapscript because I found a perl script which use the
> Douglas-Peucker algorithm for line simplification (this script use ESRI
> shapefile in input and output; I don't know if the using of ESRI shapefile
> is the reason to need perl-mapscript module)
> Thanks for your response

Mick,
I'm not familiar with synaptic but I think the main question is why do the 
packages conflict.?
Mapscript depends on mapserver which can depend on a whole host of things 
that could conflict with GRASS, ie. GD, freetype, ...
You could compile mapserver & mapscript from source and only include what 
input & output formats are needed.
If the code you found contains specific syntax which pertains to 
perlmapscript, ie. "new mapscript::shapeObj(-1);" then you need mapscript 
unless you rewrite the code to use something like GEO::Shapelib which has 
fewer dependencies but is only intended to access shapefiles. 

Lowell Filak