NO DEAD LAWNS

Good. Whew. GRASS is clearly not dying. Thanks for the responses.

  jim

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The Question:
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Jim Ludwig (ludwig@hydro2.ce.washington.edu) writes on 13 Jun 94:
>I haven't been able to follow the email too closely over the past
>three or so months, but from the tidbits I have picked up, I get the
>im*pres*sion that the GRASS project is being abandoned.

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The Responses:
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what tidbits?

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Jim, the only way GRASS is going to abandoned soon is if the person
with the lame mailer sending those zip-code messages doesn't pull the
plug soon!

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While things may be changing within the GRASS community, GRASS itself
is neither dying or even ill.

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i read your recent posting to grass-u, in which you ask for comment
on your sense that grass is being abandonned.
A few months back, somebody posted a note to grass-u requesting info
on further plans for Xgrass; kurt buehler of CERL, who coordinated
the original Xgrass release, responded that CERL had no current
funding for further Xgrass development. I think many readers
misinterpreted his comments on Xgrass (the X GUI interface sitting
on top of grass), and mistakenly assumed he was speaking of GRASS
development. A slew of reader comments followed.
Coincidentally, Marji Larson, the former head of the Office of GRASS
Integration (OGI) at CERL, recently left CERL to begin a family.
However, the timing of her leaving in combination with the above
grass-u postings has left folks with the feelings you voice.

However, GRASS is still being developed. GRASS 5.0 is scheduled
for release in 1995. 5.0 release planning is now underway;
already-planned enhancements include:

  Floating Point
  Enhanced cartographic output
  New image analysis tools
  New SQL tools
  Hydro. modeling and surface interpolation tools
  etc., etc.

In addition to this, a Tcl-interface to GRASS 4.1 has been written
by a Canadian firm and is being distributed on the net
(part of the reason for no further plans for further development
by CERL for X-grass GUI in its current incarnation).

Sorry for the confusion. I think many feel similarly confused.