[GRASS-windows] Re: [GRASS-user] Problem Script: "from collections import deque"

[Glynn Clements]

Luigi Ponti wrote:

> > Unfortunately, there isn't a simple option for running GRASS on
> > Windows at the moment. The official Windows packages for GRASS are
> > quite badly broken, and doing it yourself is a lot of work.
> 
> I did notice that.
> 
> I just wonder how much responsibility do I carry as a GRASS and windows 
> user.
> 
> What is the plan -- in terms of GRASS road map? In the development stage 
> immediately prior to WinGRASS-6.4.0 release, things were getting better 
> as never before and at a fast pace. Then things seem to have somewhat 
> fallen apart.

The use of Python was originally aimed at 7.0. The addition of the
Python modules for scripting GRASS to 6.x occurred at a fairly late
stage. The bundled Python was originally intended for running the
wxPython GUI.

> Probably the windows user base -- I mean, myself -- has very low 
> programming skills, and hence is unable to help move things forward.

This has always been the problem for GRASS. The developers don't
generally develop for Windows, while those using GRASS on Windows
generally aren't developers.

However, this particular issue isn't a programming issue, but a
packaging issue. If you want to use Python for scripting GRASS on
Windows, the best solution is to delete the bundled version of Python
2.5 from the GRASS installation, install Python and the required
add-ons (wxPython, NumPy, PyWin32) from their official installers,
then edit the GRASS start-up script to remove any references to the
bundled version.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>