[GRASSweb-list]markus: web/announces announce_grass600.html,NONE,1.1

Thu Jan 20 07:53:43 EST 2005

Author: markus

Update of /grassrepository/web/announces
In directory doto:/tmp/cvs-serv24769/announces

Added Files:
	announce_grass600.html 
Log Message:
added 6.0.0 announcement

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   <title>GRASS GIS 6.0.0beta1 released 12 January 2005</title>
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<b>The GRASS Development Team announces:</b>

<h2>GRASS GIS 6.0.0beta1 released 12 January 2005</h2>

After more than two years of development the first official release of
the next generation implementation of <a href="http://grass.itc.it">GRASS</a>
has been published.

<!-- .
<P>
This is a "technology preview" release -->
(see the <a href="../devel/roadmap.php">GRASS Development Roadmap</a>).</p>

The Geographic Resources Analysis Support System, commonly referred to as
GRASS GIS, is a Geographical Information System (GIS) used for data
management, image processing, graphics production, spatial modeling, and
visualization of raster, vector and sites data. It is open source
Free Software released under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU 
General Public License (GPL)</a>.

<h3>Platforms supported by GRASS:</h3>

<p>GNU/Linux, Sun Solaris (SPARC/Intel), Silicon Graphics Irix, 
Mac OS X/Darwin, Microsoft Windows with Cygwin, HP-UX, DEC-Alpha, AIX, BSD,
iPAQ/Linux and other UNIX compliant platforms (32/64bit).</p>

<h3>Software download/CDROM:</h3>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://grass.itc.it/download/index.php">http://grass.itc.it</a></li>
<li><a href="http://grass.ibiblio.org/download/index.php">http://grass.ibiblio.org</a></li>
<li>various <a href="../mirrors.php">mirror sites</a></li>
<li><a href="../download/cdrom.php">GRASS on CDROM/DVD</a></li>
</ul>

<p>The new source code is available now, and selected binary distributions for
major operating systems will be published shortly.</p>

<p>For details on GRASS software capabilities please refer to:
<a href="../intro/general.php">http://grass.itc.it/intro/general.php</a></p>

<hr>
<table align="center" width="80%" cellspacing="3" border="0">
<tr valign="top"><td width=301>
 <a href=../images/grass600_displaymanager_gardalake_srtm.jpg><DEFANGED_IMG src=../images/grass600_displaymanager_gardalake_srtm_small.jpg></a><br>
 <i>GRASS 6.0.0beta1 Display manager showing the Italian Garda Lake (VMAP0 and SRTM data)</i>
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<td><!-- empty column for streching --></td>
<td width=312>
 <a href=../images/grass600_vdigit_spearfish.jpg><DEFANGED_IMG src=../images/grass600_vdigit_spearfish_small.jpg></a><br>
 <i>New GRASS 6.0.0beta1 vector digitizing tool</i>
</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href=http://mpa.itc.it/radim/g51/index.html>Further Screenshots</a></td><td></td></tr>
</table>

<hr>

<h3>What's new in GRASS 6.0.0</h3>

Vector geometry management:
GRASS 6.0.0beta1 comes with a completely overhauled vector engine which is
extended to manage 2D and 3D topological vector data. The new internal 
vector data format is portable between 32bit and 64bit platforms.
In addition, a new spatial indexing system accelerates vector data access and
a category indexing system accelerates attribute queries.
Vector data from other GIS software can be imported (allowing for topological 
data clean-up) as well as live-linked into the GRASS database as virtual maps.
The new Directed Graph Library provides support for vector network analysis.
Vector map overlays, intersections and extraction of features are implemented.

Attribute management:
The new vector engine includes full and flexible integration of database 
management systems (DBMS) for attribute management 
(currently PostgreSQL, mySQL, DBF, and ODBC are supported). SQL statements 
are used to manage attributes. Graphical updating of vector attributes 
has been implemented as well.

User interface:
A graphical user interface (GUI) for every module is now generated on the fly.
A new display manager has been implemented, which is supplemented by an updated 
version of the classic 'tcltkgrass' GUI menu structure.
NVIZ, the included visualization package, is enhanced to display 3D vector data. 
Additionally, a completely new graphical tool for digitizing has been implemented.

Internationalization:
The framework to translate GRASS user messages has been implemented.
Currently, the system is <a href=../devel/i18n.php>actively translated</a>
into several languages including Asian languages volume (voxel) visualization.

Multibyte FreeType Font Support:
Support has been added to display FreeType Font in the GRASS display system
including <a href=../devel/i18n.php>multibyte support for Asian characters</a>.

Multi-session:
Users can now run concurrent GRASS 6.0 sessions. It is also possible
to run GRASS 5.4.x and 6.0.0beta1 in parallel in the same LOCATION.

<P><b>Volume visualization:</b>
NVIZ now supports <a href=../grid3d/index.html>volume (voxel) visualization.</a>

Generating new GRASS LOCATIONs:
New LOCATIONs with automatically set projection information can be generated 
by <a href="http://www.epsg.org">EPSG code number</a> from the start-up screen.
Within a GRASS session, LOCATIONs can be automatically created from existing 
datasets (raster data as well as vector data).

Interoperability:
GRASS 6.0.0beta1 is integrated with the 
<a href="http://gdal.org">GDAL</a>/<a href="http://gdal.org/ogr/">OGR</a>
library to support an extensive range of raster and vector formats.
<a href="http://www.opengeospatial.org">OGC</a>-conformal Simple Features vector 
data are converted into the topological GRASS format; conversely, export 
into Simple Features is also possible.

Enhancements included from 5.4.0:
This release bundles the new vector capabilities with all the improvements
from <a href="announce_grass530.html">GRASS 5.4.0</a> (e.g. support for 
datum transformation, use of external 
<a href="http://proj.maptools.org">PROJ4</a> and GDAL/OGR libraries,
shared libraries making binary distributions significantly smaller, G3D 3-D Raster
Voxel tools). The raster capabilities of 6.0.0beta1 are almost identical with those of 
5.4.0 except for the addition of Large File Support (LFS).

<P>
For a more comprehensive list of changed modules see the 
<a href="../grass60/source/ChangeLog.gz">ChangeLog</a>.</p>

<P>
For a complete list of command in GRASS 6.0.0, see  
<a href="../grass60/manuals/html60_user/index.html">HTML manuals</a>.</p>

<p><BR><i>We are always looking for both testers and developers to
<a href="../devel/index.php">help</a> us maintain and accelerate this 
development cycle.</i></p>

<hr>
<address>
<a href=http://grass.itc.it>GRASS Development Team</a> <br>
Date: 20 january 2005 (last changed: $Date: 2005/01/20 12:53:41 $)
</address>
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