[GRASS-user] GRASS 6.3 Installation Woes on OS X

[William Kyngesburye]

On Jul 11, 2007, at 8:26 PM, Michael Barton wrote:

> If you have a .grassrc6 file that has a set gisdbase, location, and/or
> mapset (e.g., from using GRASS previously) and then you delete or  
> rename any
> of the above, GRASS init.sh will generate an error and GRASS will  
> crash on
> launch with the error message below.
>
> The only fix is to either make the gisdbase, location, or mapset  
> directory
> that is listed in .grassrc6, or directly edit .grassrc6 to change  
> or remove
> the offending line.
>
Ah, yeah, that's an annoying one.  Though the text and TclTk GUI  
don't quit, just notify you of the problem.

> Init.sh needs to trap this kind of error--or maybe better just  
> ignore it. If
> any of these files is not present, GRASS should simply go to either  
> a) the
> initial text based startup screen if the text interface or no  
> interface is
> selected in .grassrc6, or b) go to the GUI for selecting
> gisdbase/location/mapset as if the gisdbase/location/mapset line  
> was missing
> from .grassrc6. In any case this should not cause a crash.
>
Part of the problem, specifically for the OSX app startup, is that  
double-clicking the app doesn't give you the option to start directly  
into a mapset, like you can do with 'grass6 /path/to/location/mapset/ 
map' from the command line, or adding -text to the startup command,  
so it makes editing .grassrc6 necessary to correct problems.

I just thought of one thing I can do for the app startup - drag-n- 
drop.  I can have the AppleScript app take a folder dropped onto it  
as the '/path/to/location/mapset/map' option.  I didn't use /path/to/ 
location/mapset/map much in the past, so it didn't occur to me to use  
drag-n-drop in the app ^_^

The selection of text/gui startup I deliberately avoided in the app  
startup, because I didn't want a dialog at startup every time, like  
Lorenzo does in his binary.  I wonder if I can get AppleScript to  
intercept a modifier like shift or option at startup, hmmm...

[wanders off to ponder AppleScript ideas...]

-----
William Kyngesburye <kyngchaos*at*kyngchaos*dot*com>
http://www.kyngchaos.com/

Earth: "Mostly harmless"

- revised entry in the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy