[GRASS-user] tips on GRASS Mac users

[Michael Barton]

On Jul 22, 2008, at 7:19 AM, <grass-user-request at lists.osgeo.org> <grass-user-request at lists.osgeo.org 
 > wrote:

> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:18:48 -0500
> From: William Kyngesburye <woklist at kyngchaos.com>
> Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] tips on GRASS Mac users
> To: maning sambale <emmanuel.sambale at gmail.com>
> Cc: grass-user at lists.osgeo.org
> Message-ID: <59D9BD06-FDDD-4209-B3B4-C45505AAF1EA at kyngchaos.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
> On Jul 22, 2008, at 5:29 AM, maning sambale wrote:
>
>> By the end of this week we will have a new imac as a GIS workstation,
>> I am familiar with GRASS on linux and windows, but not on a mac.  I
>> know GRASS and QGIS install OK on a mac, so that won't be a problem.
>> Any other advise/caveats/warning as we do the migrate?  We will still
>> be using our linux machine for GRASS in parallel with mac,
>> specifically:
>
> Overall, OSX is much like *nix, since it's unix-based.
>
>>
>> 1. all GRASS database files should be accessible on both machines,  
>> I'm
>> thinking of using the mac as the GRASS database repo (since it has a
>> larger Hdd capacity) and have linux read/write access
>
> OSX should have Unix file sharing, but you may have to dig around to
> configure and enable it.  Easiest on the Mac side would be Appleshare
> (AFP), and I think there is Linux client software for that.  Or you
> could use Windows file sharing on the Mac (it uses Samba), and it
> would also be available to Windows machines.
>
> Watch out for lots of network activity, though.  You probably don't
> want to write data over the network, lots of temp file usage in
> GRASS.  I'd say symlink common data mapsets to your linux
> workstation's GRASS data dir, and only do active work directly on the
> linux ws, then copy to the Mac when done.
>
> mac mount
>     grassdb
>         location
> linux grassdb
>     readonly loc -> mac mount/grassdb/location
>     working loc
>
>>
>> 2. Shell scripts are usable on both machines
>
> FYI the default shell on OSX is bash.  AND, sh IS bash.  Other shells
> are available if you prefer another.
>
>>
>> 3. Remotely access linux machine on the mac
>>
> No problems there.  I use ssh all the time for shell access between
> Macs.  VNC would be nice for GUI access.  OSX Leopard, which you will
> get on a new Mac, includes a nice builtin VNC client, and there are
> other free ones available.

To William's sage advice, I'd add....

1) If you are installing binaries from William Kyngesbury's site,  
don't forget to install the frameworks (i.e., dependencies) first.
2) Make sure that you have x11 installed if you are using the TclTk  
interface. I think it is finally installing by default with OS X 10.5,  
but it is an optional install on all other Mac OS X systems. You need  
to get it from your system disks.
3) If you want to try the new wxPython interface, it *should* work  
with the Python and wxPython that comes with OS X 10.5. For any  
earlier systems, you will need to install this yourself because the  
version of Python that came with prior systems is too old and did not  
include wxPython. You might want to get a new version of Python and  
wxPython anyway. But if you do a BIG CAVEAT!! Unless it's been fixed  
in recent weeks, do NOT get the current wxPython 2.8.8.0. The Mac  
binary installation does not include some files that are used in a  
startup version check (i.e., the *.py files; it only has the *.pyo  
binaries) and the GUI will not start.

Michael