[GRASS-dev] wxgui and georectifier ready for testing

GRASS GIS GRASS GIS developer
1

I finally managed to finish the georectifier module for the wxPython GUI for GRASS. A very nice new digitizing module also is functional and nearing completion. The wxgui is a fully functional replacement for the venerable TclTk interface. It needs testing, but should useable on a regular basis for both Linux and Mac. It especially needs people to get it up and working under Windows.

To compile, you need Python 2.4 or above (the current 2.5.x is preferred) and wxPython 2.8.x (2.8.7 is current). The digitizer also requires C++ and headers from the wxPython dev package to compile. I think binaries should work with just Python installed (this needs to be checked) -- and that requirement should be relaxed eventually if we package it with the distutils.

It's taken a lot of effort on the part of a dedicated group of people to get this elegant, new front-end to GRASS ready. Thanks are especially in order to Martin Landa, Daniel Cavelo, Jachym Cepicky, and everyone's expert consultant, Glynn Clements.

There are certainly bugs and a few rough corners that need to be fixed. But as with the rest of the GRASS project, we depend on your help to get these ironed. out. So set GRASS_GUI: wx in your .grassrc6 file and give it a whirl.

Once the initial round of testing takes place, the most egregious problems surface and are fixed, and the wxPython gui starts to appear regularly in distributed binaries, I think an announcement like this is in order for the general GRASS users group too.

Michael

2

I am not very good about keeping track of things. I use google a lot. So
when I wanted to find the latest wingrass version to download, I typed
'wingrass download' into google. The first url it returned is

http://grass.itc.it/platforms/wingrass.html

I know this is not where the latest stuff is. Its on an osgeo site
somewhere. Would be possible for someone to modify the itc site to either
point users to the osgeo site, or to put a line at the top of the window
that says "This is old. Go 'here' instead." Or something like that?

Thanks,
Jerry

3

The second relevant link in google was to the following url.
http://grass.gdf-hannover.de/wiki/WinGRASS_Installation

It also points to http://grass.itc.it/download/.

Could this also be edited?
Thanks,
Jerry

4

On Feb 8, 2008 6:10 PM, Gerald Nelson <gnelson@uiuc.edu> wrote:

I am not very good about keeping track of things. I use google a lot. So
when I wanted to find the latest wingrass version to download, I typed
'wingrass download' into google. The first url it returned is

http://grass.itc.it/platforms/wingrass.html

I know this is not where the latest stuff is. Its on an osgeo site
somewhere. Would be possible for someone to modify the itc site to either
point users to the osgeo site, or to put a line at the top of the window
that says "This is old. Go 'here' instead." Or something like that?

I am not sure what's really bad about that page. The only broken thing was
the link to Moritz' site which I have fixed now:

http://grass.osgeo.org/platforms/wingrass.html
-> Download pre-compiled winGRASS/MinGW binaries (experimental)

In general, all developers can fix pages (hint, hint).

Please let us know about other improvements needed there.

Markus

5

On Feb 8, 2008 6:12 PM, Gerald Nelson <gnelson@uiuc.edu> wrote:

The second relevant link in google was to the following url.
http://grass.gdf-hannover.de/wiki/WinGRASS_Installation

It also points to http://grass.itc.it/download/.

Could this also be edited?

Fixed. Feel free to do it directly, it is a Wiki...

Markus

6

Duh, That should have been obvious, even to me. Sorry about that. Jerry

-----Original Message-----
From: neteler.osgeo@gmail.com [mailto:neteler.osgeo@gmail.com] On Behalf Of
Markus Neteler
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 3:55 PM
To: Gerald Nelson
Cc: GRASS developers list
Subject: Re: [GRASS-dev] wingrass download again

On Feb 8, 2008 6:12 PM, Gerald Nelson <gnelson@uiuc.edu> wrote:

The second relevant link in google was to the following url.
http://grass.gdf-hannover.de/wiki/WinGRASS_Installation

It also points to http://grass.itc.it/download/.

Could this also be edited?

Fixed. Feel free to do it directly, it is a Wiki...

Markus

7

Gerald Nelson wrote:

I am not very good about keeping track of things. I use google a lot.
So when I wanted to find the latest wingrass version to download, I
typed 'wingrass download' into google. The first url it returned is

http://grass.itc.it/platforms/wingrass.html

I know this is not where the latest stuff is. Its on an osgeo site
somewhere. Would be possible for someone to modify the itc site to
either point users to the osgeo site, or to put a line at the top of
the window that says "This is old. Go 'here' instead." Or something
like that?

what info specifically is out of date? (I wouldn't know)
I see links to the current wiki pages there, it all looks ok to me.
?

Hamish

      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

8

Well, for one thing, if you click on the Download wingrass63... link, it
takes you to Moritz's site to a page about Blizzard and the Aibo.

But what I was really looking for was a link to the osgeo page for grass. I
can't seem to get there from any of the links on the grass.itc.it site.

Jerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Hamish [mailto:hamish_b@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 4:16 PM
To: Gerald Nelson; 'GRASS developers list'
Subject: Re: [GRASS-dev] finding things on the web

Gerald Nelson wrote:

I am not very good about keeping track of things. I use google a lot.
So when I wanted to find the latest wingrass version to download, I
typed 'wingrass download' into google. The first url it returned is

http://grass.itc.it/platforms/wingrass.html

I know this is not where the latest stuff is. Its on an osgeo site
somewhere. Would be possible for someone to modify the itc site to
either point users to the osgeo site, or to put a line at the top of
the window that says "This is old. Go 'here' instead." Or something
like that?

what info specifically is out of date? (I wouldn't know)
I see links to the current wiki pages there, it all looks ok to me.
?

Hamish

____________________________________________________________________________
________
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

9

Michael Barton wrote:

I finally managed to finish the georectifier module for the wxPython
GUI for GRASS.

congrats.

A very nice new digitizing module also is functional and nearing
completion.

Q: does it use v.edit or 'v.in.ascii format=standard' or ... ?
If the latter, is there any accomodation for preparing a replacement
for r.digit? (r.digit is just a interactive frontend to r.in.poly,
who's ascii format is highly similar to 'v.in.ascii f=std'. I lean
towards prefering that to v.digit+v.to.rast for directness/simplicity
and category+label mangement reasons.

The wxgui is a fully functional replacement
for the venerable TclTk interface. It needs testing, but should
useable on a regular basis for both Linux and Mac. It especially
needs people to get it up and working under Windows.

It sounds like the MS Windows version only needs a few changes. Is it
functional now using Cygwin?

To compile, you need Python 2.4 or above (the current 2.5.x is
preferred) and wxPython 2.8.x (2.8.7 is current). The digitizer also
requires C++ and headers from the wxPython dev package to compile. I
think binaries should work with just Python installed (this needs to
be checked) -- and that requirement should be relaxed eventually if
we package it with the distutils.

Instead of C++, is there any posibility of using SWIG+Python for those
parts?

It's taken a lot of effort on the part of a dedicated group of people
to get this elegant, new front-end to GRASS ready. Thanks are
especially in order to Martin Landa, Daniel Cavelo, Jachym Cepicky,
and everyone's expert consultant, Glynn Clements.

!

There are certainly bugs and a few rough corners that need to be
fixed. But as with the rest of the GRASS project, we depend on your
help to get these ironed. out. So set GRASS_GUI: wx in your .grassrc6
file and give it a whirl.

Once the initial round of testing takes place, the most egregious
problems surface and are fixed, and the wxPython gui starts to appear
regularly in distributed binaries, I think an announcement like this
is in order for the general GRASS users group too.

For any Debian users wondering when wx2.8 packages will exist, you can
follow the action here:
  http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=403237

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.general/114189/focus=115196
  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.general/120296
  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.general/122474
  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.general/124238
  Look for "freewx" projects at http://git.debian.org/ (active)
  http://alioth.debian.org/projects/freewx/ (inactive?)

(I'm not holding my breath)

Hamish

      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

10

On Feb 8, 2008 11:58 PM, Gerald Nelson <gnelson@uiuc.edu> wrote:

Well, for one thing, if you click on the Download wingrass63... link, it
takes you to Moritz's site to a page about Blizzard and the Aibo.

As posted yesterday - fixed... maybe your browser cache tricks you?

But what I was really looking for was a link to the osgeo page for grass. I
can't seem to get there from any of the links on the grass.itc.it site.

You mean
http://www.osgeo.org/grass
?

Yes, we should link that somehow - suggestions welcome!

Markus

11

Hi,

2008/2/9, Hamish <hamish_b@yahoo.com>:

Michael Barton wrote:
> A very nice new digitizing module also is functional and nearing
> completion.

Q: does it use v.edit or 'v.in.ascii format=standard' or ... ?

The digitization tool is based on *v.edit* functionality. User can
choose from two components, first one calls v.edit command directly,
the second one uses C++ layer which calls functions from veditlib.
Calling v.edit directly can significantly slow down operations on
middle-large vector maps (open map, modify data, rebuild topology,
close, re-render data on graphic display). The second component
modifies data directly (like TCL/TK v.digit do).

If the latter, is there any accomodation for preparing a replacement
for r.digit? (r.digit is just a interactive frontend to r.in.poly,
who's ascii format is highly similar to 'v.in.ascii f=std'. I lean
towards prefering that to v.digit+v.to.rast for directness/simplicity
and category+label mangement reasons.

yes, one of TODO points

http://grass.gdf-hannover.de/wiki/WxPython-based_GUI_for_GRASS#Raster_map_layers

> The wxgui is a fully functional replacement
> for the venerable TclTk interface. It needs testing, but should
> useable on a regular basis for both Linux and Mac. It especially
> needs people to get it up and working under Windows.

It sounds like the MS Windows version only needs a few changes. Is it
functional now using Cygwin?

No idea, no testing done till now. I need to find Windows machine
somewhere;-) But I am afraid there will be more then 'a few'
changes...

> To compile, you need Python 2.4 or above (the current 2.5.x is
> preferred) and wxPython 2.8.x (2.8.7 is current). The digitizer also
> requires C++ and headers from the wxPython dev package to compile. I
> think binaries should work with just Python installed (this needs to
> be checked) -- and that requirement should be relaxed eventually if
> we package it with the distutils.

Instead of C++, is there any posibility of using SWIG+Python for those
parts?

No, I tried to use SWIG+Python directly when I started to work on
vdigit tool. Too slow. C++ layer has two part: DisplayDriver for
displaying geometry objects of edited vector map in graphic display
and Digit class for modifying data. Digit class is used when user
choose vdigit component in preferences dialog, otherwise v.edit is
called directly.

Regards, Martin

--
Martin Landa <landa.martin gmail.com> * http://gama.fsv.cvut.cz/~landa *

12

Yup. It would be good to have one page with relatively minimal content. Just
links to where things are. I like the look and feel of the
http://www.osgeo.org/grass page.

By the way, one of the features of grass that has really grown on me in the
past 6 months (coming from a Windows/Arcgis environment) is the relative
ease of writing scripts to do things. This may be old hat to linux experts
but is not something that Windows types are used to doing. Anybody remember
the last time they wrote a .bat file? This is not mentioned anywhere on the
Info sheet. Just a thought.

Jerry

-----Original Message-----
From: neteler.osgeo@gmail.com [mailto:neteler.osgeo@gmail.com] On Behalf Of
Markus Neteler
Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 1:16 AM
To: Gerald Nelson
Cc: Hamish; GRASS developers list
Subject: Re: [GRASS-dev] finding things on the web

On Feb 8, 2008 11:58 PM, Gerald Nelson <gnelson@uiuc.edu> wrote:

Well, for one thing, if you click on the Download wingrass63... link, it
takes you to Moritz's site to a page about Blizzard and the Aibo.

As posted yesterday - fixed... maybe your browser cache tricks you?

But what I was really looking for was a link to the osgeo page for grass.

I

can't seem to get there from any of the links on the grass.itc.it site.

You mean
http://www.osgeo.org/grass
?

Yes, we should link that somehow - suggestions welcome!

Markus