[GRASSLIST:352] Quantian 0.3 release -- with GRASS

GRASS GRASS user
1

Hello GRASS -user,

I received the follwing mail and though that it might be interesting for some
user that Quantian (a Knoppix with scientifc programms) is now available with
GRASS - if somebody needs to have a cd-bootable-linux with GRASS (and other
programms like R etc.) have a look.

cheers Martin

Version 0.3 of Quantian is now available.

o Now based on clusterKnoppix: this adds support for OpenMosix,
   including terminalserver support for booting cluster nodes
   off the machine running quantian

o Bowing to popular demand, we added the comedi control and
   measurement device interface, the grass geographical information
   system, the gri language for scientific graphics programming and
   the ipython python shell. We also re-introduced the lyx LaTeX
   document processor, added XEmacs which clusterKnoppix removes and
   fixes a few small bugs.

The Quantian pages are at

   http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/quantian.html

and Quantian iso images are available at

   http://software.biostat.washington.edu/edd/quantian/
   http://franz.stat.wisc.edu/~edd/quantian/

--

2

On Wed, Jun 11, 2003 at 04:59:55PM +0000, Martin Wegmann wrote:

I received the follwing mail and though that it might be interesting for some
user that Quantian (a Knoppix with scientifc programms) is now available with
GRASS - if somebody needs to have a cd-bootable-linux with GRASS (and other
programms like R etc.) have a look.

Version 0.3 of Quantian is now available.

Note that 0.3 of Quantian included the last GRASS Debian packages
which are quite outdated (Debian version number: 4.99+5.0.0pre4-1)
that is based on GRASS5pre4.

The current stable version is 5.0.2.

Also I did not find an integration of GRASS in the KDE menu
nor a default location so you could start doing something easily.

3

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Hash: SHA1

Bernhard Reiter wrote:

On Wed, Jun 11, 2003 at 04:59:55PM +0000, Martin Wegmann wrote:

I received the follwing mail and though that it might be interesting

for some

user that Quantian (a Knoppix with scientifc programms) is now

available with

GRASS - if somebody needs to have a cd-bootable-linux with GRASS (and

other

programms like R etc.) have a look.

Version 0.3 of Quantian is now available.

Note that 0.3 of Quantian included the last GRASS Debian packages
which are quite outdated (Debian version number: 4.99+5.0.0pre4-1)
that is based on GRASS5pre4.

The current stable version is 5.0.2.

Also I did not find an integration of GRASS in the KDE menu
nor a default location so you could start doing something easily.

On Mandrake (grass 5.0.0 in contrib of 9.0 and 9.1, 5.0.2 in current
cooker, packages of 5.0.2 avialable for 9.1 also) we have KDE menu
inttegration, but how feasible is it to have a default location? And how
would it affect new locations? Would you suggest shipping the spearfish
data? And how about integration with other data sets (I think I have at
least 3 copies of the same data installed, some for grass, some for
flightgear, some for GMT).

Regards,
Buchan

- --
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4

On Mon, Jun 23, 2003 at 08:50:25PM +0200, Buchan Milne wrote:

Bernhard Reiter wrote:

> Also I did not find an integration of GRASS in the KDE menu
> nor a default location so you could start doing something easily.

how feasible is it to have a default location?

It is important for new users, that they have something
to start on. To create a location is a tedious task, especially
for a beginner.

And how would it affect new locations?

I don't see why it would prevent using other locations
or creating additional ones.

Would you suggest shipping the spearfish data?

To ship any data set would be an improvement.

And how about integration with other data sets (I think I have at
least 3 copies of the same data installed, some for grass, some for
flightgear, some for GMT).

A laudable goal which will require some effort
to come up with standards and way to convert the data into the
same format. Of course any distribution would benefit,
if there are instructions on how to use these datasets.
The FreeGIS-CD for instance contains an example on how to import
a GLOBE data tile into GRASS.

  Bernhard

5

On Tue, 24 Jun 2003, Bernhard Reiter wrote:

> how feasible is it to have a default location?

It is important for new users, that they have something
to start on. To create a location is a tedious task, especially
for a beginner.

YES! I went crazy first time!

> Would you suggest shipping the spearfish data?

Yes, but what is the use of spearfish? Not much. OK for practice, but
nothing else. Something REAL would be great. Perhaps GLOBE and ETOPO2
and the shorelines from GMT? I don't know about any copywrongs involved.
May the DCW be freely distributed? And NASA's Blue Marble? The Global
Ecosystems database?

But any real data ready for use would be a blessing for a beginner---GRASS
is hard enough as it is :-/

Gustavo
--

Clave pública GPG para gacp / GPG public key for gacp:

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6

I tend to agree. I also found creating a Location a dounting task for a biginner and ran into difficulties figuring out how to import data. In part that was because the Spearfish tutorial misses how to import a data set. I was left with figuring it out on my own. My first breakthru in importing data was using USGS SDTS DLG data sets.

I’m planning a short GRASS GIS hands-on intro here in Honolulu. I was thinking of using a native GRASS data set, but also walking people thru the process of importing SDTS data. Although having the Spearfish data set on the GNU/Linux distribution would be a definite plus, I would recommentd some easily importable data to go with it. Once a biginner learns that by importing a data set he/she can re-map the location information in GRASS to the data set’s georeferencing information, the road ahead becomes a whole lot smoother.

Although I’m presently working on providing USGS DLG GRASS-native data sets of the Hawaiian islands, the importance of people learning how to import their own data sets can not be understated.

“# Sets domain part of From: and local addresses in outgoing mail.” gacp@d-konstruktors.org
Sent by: owner-GRASSLIST@baylor.edu

06/24/03 02:32 AM
To: Bernhard Reiter bernhard@intevation.de
cc: “GRASSLIST(engl)” GRASSLIST@baylor.edu
Subject: [GRASSLIST:492] Re: Shipping data with GNU/Linux distributions

On Tue, 24 Jun 2003, Bernhard Reiter wrote:

> > how feasible is it to have a default location?
>
> It is important for new users, that they have something
> to start on. To create a location is a tedious task, especially
> for a beginner.

YES! I went crazy first time!

> > Would you suggest shipping the spearfish data?

Yes, but what is the use of spearfish? Not much. OK for practice, but
nothing else. Something REAL would be great. Perhaps GLOBE and ETOPO2
and the shorelines from GMT? I don't know about any copywrongs involved.
May the DCW be freely distributed? And NASA's Blue Marble? The Global
Ecosystems database?

But any real data ready for use would be a blessing for a beginner---GRASS
is hard enough as it is :-/

Gustavo
--

Clave p?blica GPG para gacp / GPG public key for gacp:

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7

As it happens I've had some off-list conversations with Markus about this topic in the last week or two. What I'm beginning to work on is to prepare some excerpts of the Digital Chart of the World (NIMA VMAP) in Grass format. The aim is to provide a general-purpose global vector dataset that anyone can use immediately as a starter.

Let me ask the community in general: what layers would you most like to see? Country boundaries and continents would rank high, obviously. But what else? Roads? Airports? City locations? Railroads? Rivers/streams/lakes?

Reply to the list, please, so we can keep the discussion going.

H

8

Making the NIMA VMAP available in GRASS format in order to give people a usefull easy to use dataset is a good idea. But then if we are talking about a tutorial for beginners I would highly recommend not providing the data in GRASS format but actualy going thru the process of showing people how to import data into GRASS.

Having the data already in GRASS format, although convenient, does not address the issue of teaching people how to import their own data sets. It would have been useful for me to have a tutorial data set of DLGs, DRGs, and DEMs in their original format and then learn how to import, overlay, and manipulate them. This way I would have been ushered thru the whole process from start to finish. The Spearfish tutorial starts you off with the data already imported, thus skipping an important step.

Mabe what we need is a revised tutorial, a-la Spearfish, that also includes the import/export side of things.

My question on the inclusion of data on the GNU/Linux GRASS distribution would be: Are we going for a sample data set or a tutorial data set?

Hal Mueller hal@mobilegeographics.com
Sent by: owner-GRASSLIST@baylor.edu

06/24/03 08:53 AM
To: GRASSLIST@baylor.edu
cc:
Subject: [GRASSLIST:502] Re: Shipping data with GNU/Linux distributions

As it happens I've had some off-list conversations with Markus about
this topic in the last week or two. What I'm beginning to work on is
to prepare some excerpts of the Digital Chart of the World (NIMA
VMAP) in Grass format. The aim is to provide a general-purpose
global vector dataset that anyone can use immediately as a starter.

Let me ask the community in general: what layers would you most like
to see? Country boundaries and continents would rank high,
obviously. But what else? Roads? Airports? City locations?
Railroads? Rivers/streams/lakes?

Reply to the list, please, so we can keep the discussion going.

H

9

On Tue, 24 Jun 2003, Hal Mueller wrote:

As it happens I've had some off-list conversations with Markus about
this topic in the last week or two. What I'm beginning to work on is
to prepare some excerpts of the Digital Chart of the World (NIMA
VMAP) in Grass format. The aim is to provide a general-purpose
global vector dataset that anyone can use immediately as a starter.

Let me ask the community in general: what layers would you most like
to see? Country boundaries and continents would rank high,
obviously. But what else? Roads? Airports? City locations?
Railroads? Rivers/streams/lakes?

In a word, ``YES'' :slight_smile:

More seriously, I think water bodies would be a first, at least for me---I
imported the DCW e00s, but somehow could neer get the lakes right (I lose
the islands!). And it's a *lot* of work.

Isohypses and isobaths would also be very important. Landuse and
vegetation too---I know the DCW is poor on vegetation data.

I believe the Global Ecosystem Database would also be very useful. And of
course the GMT shorelines---I don't know why, but I could never make the
areas be areas, only lines :frowning:

[I wanted these polygons to `trim' the STRM data; but I can only get
the shorelines as lines, as well as never been able to get rid of inland
water bodies]

I think this would dovetail nicely with the new capabilities of the 5.1,
so perhaps the data could be included with GRASS next release. [and
include the database ready for PostgreSQL?]

There is a LOT of interest of people who want to do GIS but never could
afford it (ESRI is a hemorrage) and now it's affordable and practical with
fast PCs and Linux. But GRASS is just too intimidating, and when to add
to that you have to build your databases from scratch... oh my! One size
won't fit all, but it WILL fit many, at least at first, and would
certainly lower the newbie barrier. So some pre-built databases would be
great (as RPMs and debs?).

Anyway, just some thoughts & ramblings :slight_smile:

-Gustavo

--

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10

> > how feasible is it to have a default location?

[...]

> > Would you suggest shipping the spearfish data?

[...]

Yes, but what is the use of spearfish? Not much. OK for practice,
but nothing else.

That's the whole point isn't it? As many/most of the tutorials use
Spearfish, it's exactly what is asked for. To cover data imports, maybe
a WGS84 version of one of the site lists could be included in a
x,y,label formatted ascii text file. If the import tutorial is run
successfully, the resultant sites would line up perfectly with one of
the existing UTM site files. This doesn't cover v.in.* or r.in.* but
sorting out the re-projection process is the tough part & translates to
vectors and rasters.
-Are there too many GDAL supported formats for a tutorial covering the
use of one format to be useful?
-Is shape file import trivial enough these days that a demo for that is
unneeded?

As far as a demo global datasets go, my list would include coastline,
lakes, rivers, roads, and political boundaries. Soil/veg types may be
too huge to use? If this could be kept smaller than ~5mb compressed, all
the better, and that shouldn't be too hard if it is only vectors.

my 2c,
Hamish

11

Luis E Menoyo said:

Mabe what we need is a revised tutorial, a-la Spearfish, that also
includes the import/export side of things.

At the moment the chapters on data import in the GRASS tutorial at
http://grass.itc.it/gdp/grass5tutor/ only contain links to relevant man
pages. So if someone was willing to write something about different import
processes, that would be great !

Moritz

12

I believe that we should limit the amount of data or layers
in a first step and only make sure that there is a packaged
version for grass that you can add this data package to
and when you fire up GRASS for the first time, you have it
ready for display directly.

Thus for this first step it is desireable to have at least
one layer of each principle type of information.
This is good about spearfish, raster, vector and sites.

  Bernhard

On Wed, Jun 25, 2003 at 03:49:05PM +1200, H Bowman wrote:

> > > how feasible is it to have a default location?
[...]
> > > Would you suggest shipping the spearfish data?
[...]
> Yes, but what is the use of spearfish? Not much. OK for practice,
> but nothing else.

That's the whole point isn't it? As many/most of the tutorials use
Spearfish, it's exactly what is asked for. To cover data imports, maybe
a WGS84 version of one of the site lists could be included in a
x,y,label formatted ascii text file.

As far as a demo global datasets go, my list would include coastline,
lakes, rivers, roads, and political boundaries. Soil/veg types may be
too huge to use? If this could be kept smaller than ~5mb compressed, all
the better, and that shouldn't be too hard if it is only vectors.

13

On Wed, Jun 25, 2003 at 10:47:10AM +0200, Moritz Lennert wrote:

Luis E Menoyo said:
>
> Mabe what we need is a revised tutorial, a-la Spearfish, that also
> includes the import/export side of things.

What about starting from here:

http://grass.itc.it/gdp/html_grass5/import.html
http://grass.itc.it/gdp/html_grass5/export.html

Markus