[GRASS-user] GRASS "custom" applications

[Thomas Adams]

Michael,

Thanks for your feedback. I understand how the GRASS GUI is set-up — as 
you explain it. I suppose my problem is one of not wanting to break the 
current GUI, to avoid problems when new upgrades are released, yet 
simplify the user's interaction with the GRASS GUI for the purpose of 
using the tools I have in mind. Some of this, I understand, comes down 
to a design decision on my part. I do have a broader question at fits in 
with what I am asking about, but also affects others who may have 
similar needs, namely:

Should there be some facility within the GRASS GUI that allows people 
such as myself to generate some GUI tool that can simply be "dropped" 
into GRASS and appear in some consistent way in the main GRASS GUI? The 
main GRASS menu bar *may*, for instance, have a new 'Other' or 'Add-on' 
or 'Custom' or 'Tools' or whatever menu item to go with the existing 
ones ('Raster', 'Vector', 'Imagery', 'Volumes', etc.). Or rather than a 
main menu bar item, there could be an icon selection button, for 
instance. So that, if someone like myself were to add some new GUI 
component in the way I previously describe, then the item would appear 
under the new menu item. The 'dropping' into GRASS may consist of some 
standard subdirectory in the GRASS build where a subdirectory would be 
created by me or others (for each of their 'projects'), where the coding 
and some naming convention, etc. would be expected to meet certain 
guidelines in order for it to appear in the GRASS GUI.

In this way, there would be both straight-forward programming standards 
and easy user access to the new tool without breaking the interface when 
new GRASS GUI builds came along. Just a thought…

Regards,
Tom



Michael Barton wrote:
> It is relatively straightforward to create a custom application with GRASS
> because all (or very nearly all) GRASS functions can be run as a series of
> ASCII commands with arguments and switches.
>
> In essence, this is what the current TclTk GUI and development wxPython GUI
> do--execute a series of GRASS commands.
>
> One easy thing that you could do to start is simply begin with the current
> TclTk scripts and get rid of anything you don't want to show from the menus
> (gmmenu.tcl) or toolbars (gism.tcl and mapdisp.tcl).
>
> Michael
>
>
> On 7/25/07 3:48 PM, "Thomas Adams" <Thomas.Adams at noaa.gov> wrote:
>
>   
>> Folks:
>>
>> Please take a look at this: http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/ohrfc/fop.html
>>
>> which was created using ArcGIS 9.x through some customization of the GUI
>> to make the creation of the graphic a one-step process. Now, this
>> graphic could easily be created using a script in GRASS (or, presumably,
>> in ArcGIS), so it's an uninteresting example. But we use the graphic to
>> depict areas of potential flooding (as indicated by the legend) by
>> drawing color-filled polygons with text annotations to indicate the
>> period over which the flooding is likely, as shown here:
>>
>> http://www.srh.noaa.gov/wgrfc/fop/wgrfcfop.html
>>
>> for a different region of the U.S. My question is this: how should I
>> proceed to do this through some customization of the GRASS interface to
>> "hide" GRASS details using a somewhat simplified GUI tool. I should add,
>> that the flood risk polygons are exported to a text format file, which
>> is then transmitted to a national center to generate a National product
>> like this:
>>
>> http://www.srh.noaa.gov/wgrfc/fop/wgrfcfop.html
>>
>> I am also interested in an unrelated 'custom applcation' that would
>> essentially combine a series of GRASS analyses into single step
>> processes utilizing the GRASS GUI to initiate the analyses and set some
>> parameters ‹ for various hydrologic analyses, including:
>>
>> (1) identification of snow elevation zones (disconnected regions within
>> a watershed, above a certain elevation)
>> (2) basin boundary delineation for a set of watershed outlets (utilizing
>> r.water.outlet, etc.)
>> (3) model parameter estimation
>>
>> I think most of this could be done as GRASS add-ons; would this be the
>> way to go, or would embellishing the GRASS Tcl/Tk interface be necessary
>> (something I would rather NOT do for several reasons).
>>
>> Thanks for any and all feedback!
>>
>> Tom
>>     
>
> __________________________________________
> Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
> Director of Graduate Studies
> School of Human Evolution & Social Change
> Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
> Arizona State University
>
> phone: 480-965-6213
> fax: 480-965-7671
> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton 
>
>   


-- 
Thomas E Adams
National Weather Service
Ohio River Forecast Center
1901 South State Route 134
Wilmington, OH 45177

EMAIL:	thomas.adams at noaa.gov

VOICE:	937-383-0528
FAX:	937-383-0033