[GRASSweb-list] hamish: web/announces abstract_grass620.txt, NONE, 1.1 announce_grass620.html, NONE, 1.1

grass at intevation.de grass at intevation.de
Thu Aug 31 02:42:08 EDT 2006


Author: hamish

Update of /grassrepository/web/announces
In directory doto:/tmp/cvs-serv27002/web/announces

Added Files:
	abstract_grass620.txt announce_grass620.html 
Log Message:
6.2.0 announcements


--- NEW FILE: abstract_grass620.txt ---
GRASS GIS releases version 6.2.0
[DAY] [MONTH] 2006
http://grass.itc.it

This new stable release includes hundreds of new features and support for
the latest GIS data formats.

The Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) is a Geographic
Information System (GIS) used for spatial modeling, visualization of both
raster and vector data, geospatial data management and analysis, processing
of satellite and aerial imagery, and production of sophisticated presentation
graphics and hardcopy maps. GRASS combines powerful raster, vector, and
geospatial processing engines into a single integrated software package.

The GRASS GIS project is developed under the terms of the GNU General
Public License (the GPL) by volunteers the world over. GRASS differs
from many other GIS software packages used in the professional world
in that it is developed and distributed by users for users; mostly
on a volunteer basis, in the open, and is given away for free. Emphasis
is placed on interoperability and unlimited access to data as well as
software flexibility and evolution rate (both added features and bug
minimization).

GRASS is currently used around the world in academic and commercial
settings, as well as by many governmental agencies and environmental
consulting companies.

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<head>
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   <meta name="Author" content="GRASS Development Team">
   <title>GRASS GIS 6.2.0 released</title>
   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../sitestyle.css">
</head>
<body>

<b>The GRASS Development Team announces:</b>

<div align="right">
[ <a href="../index.php">HOME</a> ]
</div>

<h2>GRASS GIS 6.2.0 released [DATE] 2006</h2>

<p>
A new stable version of <a href="http://grass.itc.it">GRASS GIS</a>
is being released today. This release improves upon the previous stable
version of GRASS by adding hundreds of new features as well as support
for the latest GIS data formats.

<p>
The <i>Geographic Resources Analysis Support System</i>, commonly referred to
as GRASS, is a Geographic Information System (GIS) combining powerful raster,
vector, and geospatial processing engines into a single integrated software
suite. GRASS includes tools for spatial modeling, visualization of raster and
vector data, management and analysis of geospatial data, and the processing of
satellite and aerial imagery. It also provides the capability to produce
sophisticated presentation graphics and hardcopy maps.

<P>
GRASS is currently used around the world in academic and commercial settings
as well as by many governmental agencies and environmental consulting companies.
It runs on a variety of popular hardware platforms and is Free open source
software released under the terms of the
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License</a>.

<P>
Joining GRASS's well-developed raster engine the GRASS 6 series introduced a
new topological 2D/3D vector engine featuring support for vector network
analysis and SQL-based DBMS management of linked attributes.
This release improves the integration and functionality of the raster and
vector engines, and 3D raster (voxel) support has been greatly enhanced.

<P>
A new graphical GIS manager and menu system has been implemented, while the
old GUI display manager has been retained and improved for legacy support.
The NVIZ visualization tool has been enhanced to display 3D vector data
and voxel volumes and supports the creation of on-the-fly MPEG animations.
Additional improvements include substantial message translation
(i18n) with support for FreeType fonts, including multi-byte Asian
characters, and tools to allow new project locations to be automatically
generated from input data or EPSG code.

<P>
This is the first release of GRASS as a proposed founding project of the new
<a href="http://www.osgeo.org/">Open Source Geospatial Foundation</a>.
In support of the movement towards consolidation in the open source geospatial
software world, GRASS is tightly integrated with the latest GDAL/OGR libraries.
This enables access to an extensive range of raster and vector formats,
including OGC-conformal Simple Features. GRASS also makes use of the highly
regarded PROJ.4 software library with support for most known map projections
and the easy definition of new and rare map projections via custom
parameterization.

<h3>Screenshots</h3>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://grass.itc.it/grass61/screenshots/index.php">Screenshots</a>
of GRASS 6.2 in action
</ul>

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

<p>GNU/Linux, Mac OS X/Darwin, Microsoft Windows (native using MinGW or with
full UNIX support via Cygwin), Sun Solaris (SPARC/Intel), Silicon Graphics
Irix, HP-UX, DEC-Alpha, AIX, BSD, iPAQ/Linux and other UNIX compliant platforms.
GRASS runs on both 32 and 64 bit systems with large files (&gt;2GB) supported by
many key modules.


<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>,
the previous <a href="announce_grass600.html">GRASS 6.0.0 Announcement</a>,
and the newly renovated <a href="http://grass.gdf-hannover.de/wiki/Main_Page">Wiki
collaborative help system</a>.


<h3>What's new in GRASS 6.2.0</h3>

(selected improvements)

<ul>
<li>Numerous bug fixes
<ul>
  <li>see the ChangeLog
	<a href="../grass61/source/ChangeLog_6.1.0.gz">6.1</a>,
	<a href="../grass62/source/ChangeLog_6.2.0.gz">6.2</a>
      text files for details
</ul>
<li>Source code quality/libraries:
<ul>
  <li> GRASS is now in large part ANSI C compliant
  <li> Ported <a href="http://mpa.itc.it/radim/wingrass/">natively to MS-Windows</a> (MinGW based)
  <li> Included header files improved, many compiler warnings fixed
  <li> Compilation: compatibility with GCC 4
  <li> <a href="http://grass.itc.it/devel/index.php#prog">Programmer's Manual</a>: continued doxygen integration and automated extraction into
       PDF/HTML formats. Publicly available for download and perusal.
  <li> SUBMITTING, SUBMITTING_SCRIPTS, SUBMITTING_TCLTK: Improved instructions for code submission
  <li> GRASS-SWIG prototype interface added (library bindings for PERL and Python)
  <li> DBMI: SQLite driver added; SQL parser extended (support for expressions, new types, etc.)
  <li> DBMI: MySql driver rewritten; MeSql added
  <li> Support for long map/mapset names
  <li> Raster maps: ZLIB compression bug fixed for tiny maps
  <li> Raster maps: optional large file support (LFS, experimental) for maps &gt; 2GB
  <li> Display: X11/PNG driver rewritten, added RGB-raster operations
  <li> Display: Working towards X-Windows as an optional dependency (new multi-platform GUI support)
  <li> Display: 100% CPU use during interactive mouse functions fixed
  <li> Projection code database: updated to EPSG 6.9
  <li> TclTk 8.4 supported for Debian and other platforms using threaded libraries
  <li> Full FFTW3 support for fast Fourier Transforms
  <li> NetBSD configuration fixes
</ul>
<li>  New Quality control systems:
<ul>
  <li> New internal GRASS test suite (scripts collection in testsuite/)
  <li> New external <a href="http://www-pool.math.tu-berlin.de/~soeren/grass/GRASS_TestSuite/html/Summary.html">GRASS test suite</a> (TU Berlin)
  <li> New external <a href="http://grass.itc.it/mailman/listinfo/grass-qa">GRASS Quality Assessment and monitoring system</a> (&Eacute;cole Polytechnique de Montr&eacute;al and ITC-irst)
</ul>
<li>  Graphical User Interface (GUI):
<ul>
 <li> Major improvements in the Tcl/TK based autogenerated GUI
 <li> <b>gis.m</b>: new GIS manager added as an optional replacement for d.m
 <li> <b>d.m</b>: Legacy support provides access to the latest features
      together with continued system maturity
 <li> QGIS integration: fixes for GRASS plugin and toolbox in Quantum GIS
 <li> Continued behind-the-scenes infrastructure refinements for the next generation GUI
</ul>
<li> Modules/Scripts:
<ul>
 <li> Message translation (i18N): added and extended to more than a dozen
      languages, Tcl/Tk GUI and shell script messages are now translatable
 <li> Documentation/man pages: various fixes and improvements (more examples
      added, including graphics, improved style, new introductory pages)
 <li> <b>d.correlate</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - create a graph of the
      correlation between data layers
 <li> <b>d.graph</b>: rewritten and extended, merged with d.mapgraph
 <li> <b>d.grid</b>: added support for geographic grid overlay on non Lat/Lon map
      projections
 <li> <b>d.labels</b>, <b>v.label</b>: d.paint.labels renamed d.labels;
      significant fixes and improvements to the label subsystem
 <li> <b>d.m</b>: improved layout; added functionality
 <li> <b>d.menu</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - Creates and displays a menu
      within the active graphics monitor (tool for interactive scripts)
      (port from GRASS 5)
 <li> <b>d.mvmon</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - move current displayed maps to
      another monitor
 <li> <b>d.out.file</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - saves active display monitor
      graphics to an image file (PNG,JPEG,...)
 <li> <b>d.out.gpsdrive</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - exports display monitor
      to a GpsDrive compatible backdrop image
 <li> <b>d.polar</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - draws a polar diagram for an
      angle map such as topographic aspect or flow direction
 <li> <b>d.text</b>: added support for text rotation
 <li> <b>d.vect</b>: variable vector line width added, random colors for points and
      lines, dynamic width and colors from attribute data
 <li> <b>d.vect.thematic</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - thematic mapper for
      vector map displays 
 <li> <b>g.html2man</b>: fixes for improved man page output
 <li> <b>g.transform</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - utility to compute
      coordinate transformations based upon GCPs and output error measurements
 <li> <b>gis.m</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> alternative graphical GIS manager
      (see above)
 <li> <b>i.in.spotvgt</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - import of SPOT VGT NDVI
      file into a raster map
 <li> <b>i.landsat.rgb</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - auto-enhancement of colors
      for LANDSAT imagery
 <li> <b>i.ortho.photo/i.rectify</b>: no longer signals completion with email
      notification
 <li> <b>i.spectral</b>: fix for finding gnuplot
 <li> <b>i.vpoints</b>: various fixes, including reverse transform overlay of vector
      maps from target projection
 <li> <b>m.proj</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - utility to convert coordinates
      from one projection to another (automated frontend for cs2cs)
 <li> <b>NVIZ</b>: integrated into single user interface; animation labels; new
      fly-through navigation; direct output of animations to MPEG with FFMPEG
      library; menus polished; full Tcl/Tk 8.4 support
 <li> <b>ps.map</b>: many improvements (extended RGB support, etc), new vector fill
      patterns including vector legend support
 <li> <b>r.carve</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - hydrological module for
      transforming vector data of a stream to raster, and subtracts
      depth from the output DEM
 <li> <b>r.flow</b>: disallow erroneous Lat/Lon calculations
 <li> <b>r.in.srtm</b>: support for US 1-arcsec tiles
 <li> <b>r.in.wms</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - download and import data from WMS servers
 <li> <b>r.in.xyz</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - creates a raster map from an
      assemblage of many coordinates using univariate statistics (LIDAR/Swath
      bathymetry import tool)
 <li> <b>r.lake</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - raises lakes in a DEM from a seed
      at a given water level
 <li> <b>r.mapcalc, r3.mapcalc</b>: acos(), asin(), pow(), &amp;&amp;&amp; and ||| added
      for more intuitive handling of null data
 <li> <b>r.mask</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - create a MASK for limiting raster
      operations (rewritten for GRASS 6)
 <li> <b>r.out.gdal</b>: added support for multiple CREATEKEY and METAKEY parameters
 <li> <b>r.out.vtk</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - converts raster maps into the
      VTK-ASCII format
 <li> <b>r.profile</b>: improved data input
 <li> <b>r.sim.sediment</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - overland flow hydrologic
      erosion model based on duality particle-field concept (SIMWE)
 <li> <b>r.sim.water</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - overland shallow water flow
      hydrologic model based on duality particle-field concept (SIMWE)
 <li> <b>r.sun</b>: fixed units in description; new shadow algorithm; correction
      factor for shadowing to account for the earth curvature
 <li> <b>r.support</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - raster map layer support
      module (port from GRASS 5)
 <li> <b>r.thin</b>: fixed maximum iterations for lines
 <li> <b>r.to.rast3</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - converts 2D raster map slices
      to one 3D raster volume map
 <li> <b>r.to.vect</b>: add flag to not build topology (for r.in.xyz + v.surf.rst)
 <li> <b>r3.*</b>: code improvements and extended functionality for voxel data
 <li> <b>r3.out.vtk</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - converts 3D raster maps into
      the VTK-ASCII format
 <li> <b>v.centroids</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - adds missing centroids
      to a vector map's closed area boundaries
 <li> <b>v.db.addcol</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - adds one or more columns to
      the attribute table connected to a given vector map
 <li> <b>v.db.addtable</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - creates and adds a new
      attribute table to a given layer of an existing vector map
 <li> <b>v.db.droptable</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - removes existing attribute
      table of a vector map
 <li> <b>v.db.reconnect.all</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - reconnect vector maps
      to a new database
 <li> <b>v.db.select</b>: multiple column support added
 <li> <b>v.db.update</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - allows the user to assign a
      new value to a column in an attribute table
 <li> <b>v.drape</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - converts a 2D vector map to a 3D
      vector map by sampling an elevation raster
 <li> <b>v.digit</b>: new layout, tools added, bugs fixed
 <li> <b>v.dissolve</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - dissolve boundaries
      between adjacent areas in a vector map
 <li> <b>v.external</b>: GID search added; auto-search of FID added
 <li> <b>v.extrude</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - extrudes a flat vector objects to
      3D vector faces of a defined height
 <li> <b>v.in.dxf</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - rewritten for GRASS 6, 3D support added
 <li> <b>v.in.ogr</b>: --overwrite flag repaired, selective import with WHERE option
 <li> <b>v.in.e00</b>: fixes
 <li> <b>v.in.gns</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - imports US-NGA GEOnet Names Server
      (GNS) country files
 <li> <b>v.in.gpsbabel</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - import Waypoints, Routes, and
      Tracks from a GPS receiver or a GPS ASCII file into a vector map
 <li> <b>v.in.mapgen</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - imports Mapgen or Matlab vector maps
      (port from GRASS 5)
 <li> <b>v.kernel</b>: improved speed
 <li> <b>v.lrs.*</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - Linear Reference System for
      vector line networks
 <li> <b>v.out.ogr</b>: Faces export added (3D vectors, for KML etc)
 <li> <b>v.patch</b>: attribute transfer, if table structures are identical
 <li> <b>v.rast.stats</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - calculates univariate
      statistics from a GRASS raster map based on vector objects
 <li> <b>v.report</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - calculate and report geometry
      statistics for vector maps
 <li> <b>v.surf.rst</b>: default npmin option fixed; fix for reading spatially variable smoothing
 <li> <b>v.to.rast</b>: added option to compute the direction (angle) of lines
 <li> <b>v.to.rast3</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - converts a vector points map
      into a 3D raster map
 <li> <b>v.univar.sh</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - calculates extended univariate statistics 
      on a selected vector map attribute table column
 <li> <b>v.what.vect</b>: <font color="red">NEW</font> - upload vector values at positions of vector
      points to a vector's attribute table
 <li> Misc. display modules: Increased support for true-color RGB decorations
 <li> Misc. vector modules: Support for dynamic fill color and dynamic feature
      sizing from DB attribute columns
 <li> Scripts: Fixes for awk and related calculation problems for various locales
 <li> Scripts: Variable test portability issues fixed
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>GRASS Extensions Manager (GEM): <font color="red">NEW</font>
<ul>
  <li>Configure, compile and install additional GRASS modules without needing
      the GRASS source code. Simplifies the addition of new modules or themed
      module groups.
</ul>
</ul>
<P>
For a comprehensive list of changes to modules see the 
  <a href="../grass61/source/ChangeLog_6.1.0.gz">6.1</a> and
  <a href="../grass62/source/ChangeLog_6.2.0.gz">6.2</a>
ChangeLog files.</p>
<P>
For a complete list of commands available in GRASS 6.2.0 see the
<a href="../grass62/manuals/html62_user/index.html">online 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.

The GRASS GIS project is developed under the terms of the
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License</a>
(the GPL) <a href="http://grass.itc.it/devel/index.php">in the open</a> by
<a href="http://grass.itc.it/community/index.php">volunteers</a> the
<a href="http://mapserver.gdf-hannover.de/grassusers/map.phtml">world over</a>.

GRASS differs from many other GIS software packages used in the professional
world in that it is developed and distributed by users for users; mostly on a
volunteer basis, in the open, and is given away for free.

Emphasis is placed on interoperability and unlimited access to data as well as
software flexibility and evolution rate (both added features and bug minimization). 
</i></p>

<p>
Release history:
<ul>
<li>GRASS GIS 6.1.0 technology preview released 11 August 2006
<li>GRASS GIS 6.2.0beta1 released 28 August 2006
</ul>

<hr>
<address>
<a href=http://grass.itc.it>GRASS Development Team</a> <br>
Date: [DATE] 2006 (last changed: $Date: 2006/08/31 06:42:06 $)
</address>
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