I very much agree with Markus!
I am days at most from finishing the new menus for GRASS 5.3
I am using 5.3 all the time with absolutely no problem. Given the recent fixes in the Cygwin version, I think it should be released.
I also agree that 5.7 should be released as wide-release beta for GRASS 6. I haven't used it much over the past few months, as I've been focusing on 5.3 for teaching and menu development. However, I will certainly be switching my use and efforts to 5.7 in the very near future. IMHO, the new vector model gives vectors in GRASS the same high-octane horsepower as the raster model in 5.3. When the last of the (seemingly very few) bugs are ironed out and the GUI finished, it will be a very compelling alternative to any GIS on the market. More people should have a chance to try it out and participate in the beta testing.
A question: given the numbering scheme proposed for the GRASS roadmap, would the final release of what is now GRASS 5.3 be GRASS 5.4 (odd numbers being in-development versions, and even numbers being final released versions)?
Michael Barton
On Thursday, March 18, 2004, at 02:45 AM, grass5-request@grass.itc.it wrote:
From: Markus Neteler <neteler@itc.it>
Date: Wed Mar 17, 2004 5:54:38 AM America/Phoenix
To: grass5 developers list <grass5@grass.itc.it>
Subject: [GRASS5] GRASS releases - some remarksHello developers,
another time I have received new developed source code
based on GRASS 5.0 - in this case the internationalization
of tcltkgrass and NVIZ.
I feel that we either need a release of 5.3 or that
we should somehow modify the web pages to make clear
that new developments should be at least based
on 5.3 (for vectors: 5.7).
Also, as posted earlier, I received other comments that
without an official release (of 5.3) they would stick
with 5.0.Sounds a bit unfortunate to me, so let me put again
into discussion the suggestion to publish a 5.3.0 version.[hey: 5.3 indicates *development*]
Look at the statistics (only HTTP, rsync/FTP not included):
http://grass.itc.it/webalizer/usage_200402.html#TOPURLS-> Top 10 of 59396 Total URLs By KBytes (Feb 2004)
# hits
1 430 /grass5/binary/linux/grass5.0.3_i686-pc-linux-gnu_bin.tar.gz
2 353 /grass5/binary/windows_cygnus/wingrass_generic/grass5.0.2_i686-pc-cygwin_bin.tar.gz
3 283 /grass5/binary/windows_cygnus/wingrass_xserver/grass5.0.3_i686-pc-cygwin_bin.tar.gz
4 388 /grass5/source/grass-5.0.3_src.tar.gz
5 173 /grass5/binary/mac_os_x/grass5.0.2_powerpc-apple-darwin6.5_bin.tar.bz2
7 104 /grass5/source/grass-5.0.0_src.tar.gz
9 62 /grass5/source/grass-5.0.2_src.tar.gzI can only see 5.0.x downloads in the TOP10 list.
While the nice features are in 5.7, most developers work in 5.3
and the users download 5.0We should improve the situation and make available at least 5.3
to a wider audience.Markus
______________________________
Michael Barton, Professor & Curator
Department of Anthropology
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-2402
USA
voice: 480-965-6262; fax: 480-965-7671