geomantic

The source code for the latest release candidate of GRASS is now available at the OSGEO site. I’ve always thought the analytical capabilities of GRASS were quite robust, but could never quite get used to the old interface written in TCL/TK and so I never had the patience to ascend the learning curve. This new release touts a new interface base on WxPython and the looks are vastly improved. Here’s a screenshot of the startup screen.

Much better front page for the world’s leading open source GIS, no? Being a first release, the GUI is limited to providing some tools focused almost exclusively on geo-data creation and management, which is a good start. Now it’s time for the developers, consultants, and other contributors to the GRASS project to extend the user interface to incorporate a broader range of business processes such as analysis, reporting, and resource management.

Here’s the link to the press release