Dear all,
Following posts on Binder - mybinder.org [1] and CoCalc - cocalc.com [2, 3], I would like to introduce also rollApp - rollapp.com, another alternative for “Try online” link. It is a freemium service providing access to many (mostly) open source applications through a web browser (i.e., in cloud). You need to log in (e.g., with Google Account) to access it and you can’t save data without purchasing a plan, but you can run applications and access the Internet. (With a plan, you can connect different storage such as Drobox or Google Drive.)
It can run GRASS GIS for couple years already. You can try it here:
https://www.rollapp.com/app/grassgis (page with a Launch button)
https://www.rollapp.com/launch/grassgis (direct link with possibly sub-optimal results)
[1] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/2019-August/093053.html
[2] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/2019-August/093058.html
[3] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/2019-December/093910.html
Right now, it would not work well as a “try online” tool, but it could. Continue reading if you want to know details.
I worked with them in the past I bit and made some fixes in GRASS GIS which helped rollApp to start GRASS GIS.
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/70461
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/70335
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/70336
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/70450
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/70357
Some additional commits since then (for example, removal of tput) also improved start in environments such as rollApp.
https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/commit/5c46b130ea50df148ebc73699974c2a621e15e4b
One ongoing issue (which is possibly relevant to CoCalc, too) is that GRASS GIS can start only with terminal. You can reproduce the issue locally on Linux using nohup grass or, at least on Ubuntu with Unity, by pressing Ctrl+F2 and typing “grass”.
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3295
Nevertheless, you can start GRASS GIS even with free account, in the startup screen change the database directory to /tmp, download a sample location, and start GRASS GIS. I think the GUI is little bit faster than in CoCalc. The command line is worse than what you have in CoCalc (fixed size xterm versus in-browser one).
There is couple things which can be done in GRASS GIS or in rollApp to make this a great “try online” option (even perhaps as a secondary one in case we want to favor an open source platform). In any case, I would like to find a place on the new website to have rollApp listed as one option for using GRASS GIS online.
Let me know what you think,
Vaclav