On 31/10/07 13:58, Benjamin Ducke wrote:
Glynn Clements wrote:
Moritz Lennert wrote:
So, I still believe that:
rem Path to the shell command
rem set GRASS_SH=c:\msys\1.0\bin\sh.exe
is a better solution (since allowing the user to install what they want
where they want) than
Yes, but often (especially my type of user), they don't know enough
to want anything (see below).
Anyway, a knowledgeable user can always adjust those vars by hand!
Agreed. The above is the only location where a Bourne shell is likely
to be found. If it's anywhere else, the user will have to set it
manually.
Or we supply it as part of the WinGRASS binary distribution! (see below)
The relative path will only work if grass63.bat is installed in
c:\msys\1.0, so there's no benefit to using it.
Not quite. With the setup above, GRASS can be installed _anywhere_ on
the file system. The only prerequisite is that grass63.bat sits
in the same folder as the GRASS install dir.
E.g. on my harddisk I have grass63.bat in c:\WinGRASS\
and the GRASS dir (grass-6.3.cvs) in the same folder.
I then copied C:\msys\1.0\bin, dll and share
(at least the parts that I needed for using the shell) into
c:\WinGRASS.
This way, I have a completely self-contained GRASS distribution.
I can add more bits an pieces (such as R) easily as needed and
at the end, put everything into on ZIP for distribution.
I don't know what could be easier. Especially since this approach
does not interfere with an MSYS already installed on the user's
system.
But it might install the same programs twice on the machine and probably
bloat the grass distribution by quite a lot (don't forget that most
people do not have broadband) ...
IMO, we should stick to a basic wingrass distribution to which people
can add what they want in terms of other programs. If they want access
to R, they can add R's bin + lib directories to the path and that's it.
If you have a particular audience that needs a series of add-ons and
tweaks than you can provide a special package for them, but I prefer to
distribute a simple package without any unnecessary additions (and I
consider msys an unnecessary addition in this context as there is hardly
anything you cannot do without scripts - it just might not be as
convienient). Don't assume that everyone has the same needs as you.
And up to now feedback has been that installation of the wingrass
package is very easy...
However, I agree that we could maybe provide more detailled
documentation on how to integrate different packages (at least msys).
Moritz
The benefit for the user is that only one .bat is visible in
the top dir: it's clear what to click on and there is no
searching in bin grass-6.3.cvs/bin or wherever to find
a startup-script.
If the instructions in the readme are not clear enough, please provide
suggestions for improvement. Up to now I have not received any feedback
from users not being able to find how to launch grass.
Please keep in mind, that my Windows target users will often not
have the ability (or patience) to install MSYS by themselves and set
the appropriate vars in some obscure batch script -- they just
want to click and run GRASS!
And so they _can_ with the current distribution, except for the fact
that they have to install ActiveTcl if they want the gui (and the fact
that the instructions need a reference to how to start grass in text
mode). This should be solved by giving the option of downloading a grass
package including a free tcl/tk installation.
My point above concerning msys being unnecessary is obviously arguable
and if there is a general opinion that we should include it, we can (but
without any need to change the grass63.bat except for uncommenting the
line about where to find sh.exe and another to set the necessary PATH).
Moritz
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