[LINK] OT: Grass GIS

[Gordon Keith]

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 09:52, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> Linkers,
>
> Just wondering: anyone here used the Grass open source GIS system?

http://grass.itc.it/

I used it quite a bit a few years back.

I found it very good for processing data. It is fully command line driven and 
can be wrapped in shell scripts for performing identical processing over a 
number of data sets. Something which is apparently very difficult to do with 
other GIS applications.

It did have a very basic GUI that I very rarely used.

About the time I stopped using it, it came out with a new version (6) which 
had a more sophisticated front end GUI. But it can still be fully driven from 
the command line.

I do plan on using grass again when I get back to the work I needed it for.

I would recommend it for people who have GIS data and know what they are 
doing, or have a need to actually process data sets in a manner where 
scripting is useful.

For people who want a GUI driven map producer (which is all that most GIS 
systems seem to used for) then my experience (which as I've indicated is out 
of date) is that grass may not be the best option, although the price is very 
attractive.

For automated map production at the back end of a web server I understand it 
is quite good.

For research applications where you need to be able to view the algorithms 
applied to the data or implement your own algorithms it is very good.

Feel free to ask more questions.

Regards
Gordon