The GRASS GIS 8.3.2 maintenance release contains more than 30 changes compared to 8.3.1. This new patch release includes important fixes and improvements to the GRASS GIS modules and the graphical user interface (GUI), making it even more stable for daily work.

Open source software projects thrive on the contributions of the community, not only for the code, but also for making the software accessible to a global audience. One of the critical aspects of this accessibility is the localization or translation of the software’s messages and interfaces. In this context, Weblate (https://weblate.org/) has proven to be a powerful tool for managing these translations, especially for projects such as GRASS GIS, which is part of OSGeo (Open Source Geospatial Foundation).

Weblate software logoGRASS GIS logo

What is Weblate?

Weblate is an open source translation management system designed to simplify the translation process of software projects. It provides an intuitive web interface that allows translators to work without deep technical knowledge. This ease of use combined with robust integration capabilities makes Weblate a popular choice for open source projects.

GRASS GIS and Localization

GRASS GIS (https://grass.osgeo.org/), a software suite for managing and analyzing geospatial data, is used worldwide and therefore needs to be available in many languages. The project uses Weblate, hosted by OSGeo, to manage and facilitate its translation work (see OSGeo-Weblate portal).

Marking messages for translation

Before translation work can begin, the messages to be translated must be marked for translation in the GRASS GIS source code. This is done with the gettext macro _(“…”). GNU gettext is a GNU library for the internationalization of software. Here is a simplified overview of the process:

  1. Identify the strings to be translated: The developers identify the strings in the source code that need to be translated. These are usually user messages, while debug messages are not marked for translation.
  2. Use the gettext macro: The identified strings are packed into a gettext macro. For example, a string “Welcome to GRASS GIS” in the source code would be changed to _(“Welcome to GRASS GIS”). This change indicates that the string should be used for translation.
  3. Extraction and template generation: Tools such as xgettext are used to extract these marked strings from the source code and create a POT (Portable Object Template) file. This file is used as a template for all translations. In the GRASS GIS project the template language is English.

There are three template files in the GRASS GIS project: one with the graphical user interface (GUI) messages, one with the library functions (libs) and one with the modules (mods).

Connecting the software project to Weblate

While the POT files could be transferred to Weblate manually, we chose the automated option. The OSGeo Weblate instance is directly connected to the GRASS GIS project via git (GitHub) using the Weblate version control integration.

How it works in practice:

  1. Developer makes a commit to the GRASS GIS repo on GitHub
  2. A GitHub webhook makes a call to weblate.osgeo.org – note that it has it’s own local git repo for GRASS GIS, as it does for other OSGeo projects, with translations being managed in this Weblate instance. This local git repo is updated when the webhook is fired.
  3. As messages are translated in OSGeo-Weblate, they are eventually pushed to the Weblate Github fork of GRASS GIS (the push frequency is set to 24 hours by default, i.e., new translations are collected over a day), and Weblate then triggers a pull request to the main GRASS GIS repo on GitHub.

For technical background on the OSGeo Weblate installation, see the related OSGeo-SAC Weblate page.

Translation process in Weblate

Here is how the typical translation process looks like:

  • Translator registration: Registration (via OSGeo-ID) and login to the Weblate instance.
  • Language selection: Select the language to be translated. If a language does not exist yet, it can be added with the approval of the project managers.
  • Translation interface: Weblate provides an easy-to-use web interface where translators can view the original texts and enter their translations. If activated, machine translation can also be used here (DeepL, Google Translate, etc.). The Weblate translation memory helps to quickly translate identical and similar sentences.
GRASS GIS messages in Weblate

GRASS GIS messages in Weblate

  • Together we are better: translators can discuss translations, resolve conflicts and suggest improvements. Weblate also offers quality checks to ensure consistency and accuracy. Translations in different languages can be compared in tabular form.
Message translation comparison in Weblate (GRASS GIS project example)

Message translation comparison in Weblate (GRASS GIS project example)

  • Integration with source code: Once translations are completed and checked, they are written back into the GRASS GIS source code (see above). Weblate supports automatic synchronization with source code repositories.
  • Continuous updates: As the source code evolves, new strings can be marked for translation and Weblate is automatically updated to reflect these changes.
Pull request with new translations opened by Weblate in GRASS GIS Github repository

Pull request with new translations opened by Weblate in GRASS GIS Github repository

Benefits for the GRASS GIS project

By using Weblate, GRASS GIS benefits from the following advantages:

  • Streamlined translation workflow: The process from tagging strings to integrating translations is efficient and manageable.
  • Community engagement: Weblate’s ease of use encourages more community members to participate in the translation process.
  • Quality and Consistency: Weblate ensures high quality translations through integrated quality checks and collaboration tools.
  • Up-to-date localization: Continuous synchronization with the source code repository ensures that translations are always up-to-date.

Conclusion

The integration of Weblate into the GRASS GIS development workflow underlines the importance of localization in open source software. By using tools such as gettext for message tagging and Weblate for translation management, GRASS GIS ensures that it remains accessible and usable for a global community, embodying the true spirit of open source software.

Thanks

Thanks to Regina Obe from OSGeo-SAC for her support in setting up and maintaining the OSGeo-Weblate instance and for her explanations of how things work in terms of Weblate/GitHub server communication.

What’s new in a nutshell

The GRASS GIS 8.3.1 maintenance release provides more than 60 changes compared to 8.3.0. This new patch release brings in important fixes and improvements in GRASS GIS modules and the graphical user interface (GUI) which stabilizes the new single window layout active by default.

Some of the most relevant changes include: fixes for r.watershed which got partially broken in the 8.3.0 release; and a fix for installing addons on MS Windows with g.extension.

Translations continue in Weblate, which automatically creates pull requests with the translated chunks. We’d like to thank the translators of all languages for their ongoing support!

GRASS GIS 8.3.1 graphical user interface

Full list of changes and contributors

For all 60+ changes, see our detailed announcement with the full list of features and bugs fixed at GitHub / Releases / 8.3.1.

Thanks to all contributors!

Software downloads

Binaries/Installers download

Further binary packages for other platforms and distributions will follow shortly, please check at software downloads.

Source code download

First time users may explore the first steps tutorial after installation.

About GRASS GIS

The Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (https://grass.osgeo.org/), commonly referred to as GRASS GIS, is an Open Source Geographic Information System providing powerful raster, vector and geospatial processing capabilities. It can be used either as a stand-alone application, as backend for other software packages such as QGIS and R, or in the cloud. It is distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). GRASS GIS is a founding member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo).

The GRASS Dev Team

This is an update release of the GRASS GIS 8.0 series.

Download source code tarball at

For further release details (bug fixes and enhancements), see

The GRASS GIS 8.0.1 release provides more than 20 fixes and improvements with respect to the release 8.0.0.

What’s Changed

Important fixes

  • utils/mkhtml: fix print warning/fatal message during compilation to not break offline compilations (#2139) by @tmszi
  • r.quantile, r.stats.quantile, lib/stats: fix quantile algorithm (#2108) by @metzm

Module fixes

  • r.colors: fix order of rules (#2167) by @metzm
  • r.geomorphon: combine profile parser rules to allow usage as pygrass module (#2154) (#2226) by@ninsbl
  • TGIS: fix semantic label (#2215) by @metzm
  • t.rast.mapcalc: transfer semantic label (#2219) by @metzm
  • t.rast.neighbors: transfer semantic label (#2218) by @metzm

GUI

Portability

  • MS Windows packaging: add missing dlls from MSYS (#2204) by @ninsbl

Documentation

  • CONTRIBUTING.md: describe the fork process more in detail by @pesekon2
  • Fix typo in v.import documentation (#2142) by @agiudiceandrea
  • howto_release.md: cleanup of marketing section by @neteler
  • manual pages: remove unneeded SVN Date entry and selected cleanup (#2143) by @neteler

Singularity

Full Changelog: 8.0.0...8.0.1
Visit also the release page

Thanks to all contributors!

Overview of changes

After more than 3 year of development the first stable release GRASS GIS 8.0.0 is available. Efforts have concentrated on making the user experience even better, providing many new useful additional functionalities to modules and further improving the graphical user interface.

Breaking news: new graphical user interface with entirely rewritten startup sequence!

This re-establishes user experience compatibility with QGIS and other connected software packages.

The GRASS GIS 8.0.0 release provides more than 1,400 fixes and improvements with respect to the release 7.8.6.

With the introduction of the semantic label raster metadata class, the temporal database was modified to version 3. Hence, to be able to read and process GRASS 7.x space-time datasets, users will be prompted to run t.upgrade. If users want to read newly created space-time datasets back in GRASS 7.x, they can run t.downgrade.

Launching the software

The user experience of the graphical user interface has been completely rewritten: no more clumsy selection screens – just enter the menu system directly! And on command line, GRASS GIS now starts versionless, i.e. as grass. Enjoy!

Download and detailed list of changes

Thanks to all contributors!

GRASS GIS 8.0.0RC2 contributors

Overview of changes

After more than 3 year of development the first stable release GRASS GIS 8.0.0 is available. Efforts have concentrated on making the user experience even better, providing many new useful additional functionalities to modules and further improving the graphical user interface.

Breaking news: new graphical user interface with entirely rewritten startup sequence!

This re-establishes user experience compatibility with QGIS and other connected software packages.

The GRASS GIS 8.0.0 release provides more than 1,300 fixes and improvements with respect to the release 7.8.6.

With the introduction of the semantic label raster metadata class, the temporal database was modified to version 3. Hence, to be able to read and process GRASS 7.x space-time datasets, users will be prompted to run t.upgrade. If users want to read newly created space-time datasets back in GRASS 7.x, they can run t.downgrade.

Launching the software

The user experience of the graphical user interface has been completely rewritten: no more clumsy selection screens – just enter the menu system directly!

And on command line, GRASS GIS now starts versionless, i.e. as grass.

Download and detailed list of changes

See https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/releases/tag/8.0.0RC2

Thanks to all contributors!

GRASS GIS 8.0.0RC2 contributors

What’s new in a nutshell Zanzibar Mapping Initiative data processed in OpenDroneMap and interpolated respecting building footprints using v.surf.icw

As a follow-up to the previous GRASS GIS 7.8.4 we have published the new release GRASS GIS 7.8.5 with more than 80 improvements. This minor release offers new wxGUI fixes across the tree. Also the addon extension manager received various stability fixes. VRT raster map with tiled raster maps can now be properly exported and imported in the native GRASS GIS raster format.

The overview of new features in the 7.8 release series is available at new features in GRASS GIS 7.8. See also our detailed announcement with the full list of changes and bugs fixed at https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki/Release/7.8.5-News.

Binaries/Installer download:

Source code download:

First time users may explore the first steps tutorial after installation.

About GRASS GIS

The Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (https://grass.osgeo.org/), commonly referred to as GRASS GIS, is an Open Source Geographic Information System providing powerful raster, vector and geospatial processing capabilities. It can be used either as a stand-alone application or as backend for other software packages such as QGIS and R geostatistics or in the cloud. It is distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). GRASS GIS is a founding member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo).

The GRASS Development Team, Dec 2020

Call for Participation for FOSDEM 2021 geospatial devroom

Submission Deadline: 26.12.2020

FOSDEM is the largest free and open source developers meeting in Europe, with 8000+ participants. It normally takes place in Brussels (Belgium).

FOSDEM 2021 will be an online event. We will have a geospatial devroom again. The geospatial devroom will be on Saturday, 6 February 2021. In 2021 it will be our opportunity to bring our global community to FOSDEM.

The geospatial devroom is the place to talk about the state of the art of open, geo-related data, free and open source geospatial software and its ecosystem. This includes standards and tools, e.g. spatial databases, online mapping tools, geospatial services, used for collecting, storing, delivering, analysing, and visualizing geodata.

We are looking for you to be part of the geospatial devroom. The geospatial devroom aims to host talks about geospatial topics, GIS, and geodata projects, standards and open data.

Please submit your talk till 26. December 2020.

You find detailed information about the CfP at:
https://www.osgeo.org/foundation-news/osgeo-at-fosdem-2021-online-call-for-participation/

We hope you will submit a talk or come around at FOSDEM 2021.

See you at FOSDEM 2021

GRASS GIS is an open source geoinformation system which is developed by a globally distributed team of developers. Besides the source code developers also message translators, people who write documentation, those who report bugs and wishes and more are involved.

Early days… from pre-Internet to CVS and SVN

While GRASS GIS is under development since 1982 (no typo!) it has been put into a centralized source code management system in December 1999. Why so late? Because the World Wide Web (WWW) became available in the 1990s along with tools like browsers and such, followed by the development of distributed source code management tools. We moved on 29th Dec 1999 (think Y2K bug) the entire code into our instance of CVS (Concurrent Versioning System). With OSGeo being founded in 2006, we migrated the CVS repository to SVN (Subversion for the source code management) and trac (bug and wish tracker) on 8 Dec 2007. See here for historic details on our various bug trackers.

Time to move on: git

Now, after more than 10 years using SVN/trac time had come to move on and join the large group of projects managing their source code in git (see also our related Wiki page on migration). Git comes with numerous advantages, yet we needed to decide which hosting platform to use. Options where github.com, gitlab.com, gitlab or gitea on OSGeo infrastructure, or other platforms. Through a survey we found out that the preference among contributors is GitHub. While not being open source itself it offers several advantages: it is widely known (good to get new developers interested and involved), numerous OSGeo projects are hosted there under the GitHub “OSGeo organization“.

If all fails (say, one day GitHub no longer being a reasonable choice) the import of our project from GitHub to GitLab is always possible. Indeed, we meanwhile mirror our code on OSGeo’s gitea server.

Relevant script code and migration ticket:

Relevant steps:

  • migrated SVN trunk -> git master
  • migrated and tagged release branches (milestones)
  • deleted “develbranch6” (we compared it to “releasebranch_6_4” and didn’t discover relevant differences)
  • Fix commit messages (yes, we really wanted to be brave, updating decades of commit messages!):
    • references to old RT tracker tickets (used Dec 2000 – Dec 2006)
    • references to old GForge tracker tickets (used Jan 2007 – Dec 2008)
    • references to other trac tickets (#x -> https://trac.osgeo.org/…)

Source code migration: the new git repositories

  • github repository “grass” (repo)

    • Source code from 1999 to present day (SVN-trunk -> git-master)
    • all 7.x release branches
  • github repository “grass-legacy” (repo)

    • separate repository for older GRASS GIS releases (3.2, 4.x, 5.x, 6.x), hence source code now available in git since 1987!
  • github repository “grass-addons” (repo)

    • repository for addons
  • github repository “grass-promo” (repo)
    • repository for promotional material
  • github repository “grass-website” (repo)
    • repository for upcoming new Website

Remarks on the “grass-legacy” repository

What special about it:

  • the source code goes back to 1987!
  • file timestamps (which I tried to preserve for decades :-) have been used to reconstruct the source code history (e.g., releasebranch_3_2)
  • junk files removed (plenty of leftover old binary files, files consisting of a special char only etc)
  • having this grass-legacy repo available in parallel to the main grass repo which contains the  recent source code we have a continuous source code coverage from 1987 to today in git.
  • size is about 250MB

What’s missing

  • the 4.3 source code doesn’t have distinct timestamps. Someone must have once packaged without mtime preservation… a pity. Perhaps a volunteer may fix that by carrying over the timestamps from GRASS GIS 4.2 in case the md5sum of a file is identical (or so).

Trac issue migration

A series of links had to be updated. Martin Landa invested days and days on that (thanks!!). He used the related GDAL efforts as a basis (Even Rouault: thanks!). As the date for the trac migration we selected 2007-12-09 (r25479) as it was the first SVN commit (after the years in CVS). The migration of trac bugs to github (i.e. transfer of trac ticket content) required several steps:

Link updates in the ticket texts:

  • links to other tickets (now to be pointed to full trac URL). Note that there were many styles of referring in the commit log message which had to be parsed accordingly
  • links to trac wiki (now to be pointed to full trac URL)
  • links source code in SVN (now to be pointed to full trac URL)
  • images and attachments (now to be pointed to full trac URL)

Transferring:

  • “operating system” trac label into the github issue text itself (following the new issue reporting template)
  • converting milestones/tickets/comments/labels
  • converting trac usernames to Github usernames
  • setting assignees if possible, set new “grass-svn2git” an assignee otherwise
  • slowing down transfer to match the 60 requests per second API limit rate at github

Fun with user name mapping

Given GRASS GIS’ history of 35+ years we had to invest major effort in identifying and mapping user names throughout the decades (see also bug tracker history). The following circumstances could be identified:

  • user present in CVS but not in SVN
  • user present in SVN but not in CVS
  • user present in both with identical name
  • user present in both with different name (well, in our initial CVS days in 1999 we often naivly picked our surnames like “martin”, “helena”, “markus”, “michael” … cute yet no scaling very much over the years!) as some were changed in the CVS to SVN migration in 2007, leading to
    • colliding user names
  • some users already having a github account (with mostly different name again)

We came up with several lookup tables, aiming at catching all variants. Just a “few” hours to dig in old source code files and in emails for finding all the missing email addresses…

Labels for issues

We cleaned up the trac component of the bug reports, coming up with the following categories which have to be visually grouped by color since the label list is just sorted alphabetically in github/gitlab:

  • Issue category:
    • bug
    • enhancement
  • Issue solution (other than fixing and closing it normally):
    • duplicate
    • invalid
    • wontfix
    • worksforme
  • Priority:
    • blocker
    • critical
    • feedback needed
  • Components:
    • docs
    • GUI
    • libs
    • modules
    • packaging
    • python
    • translations
    • unittests
    • Windows specific

Note that the complete issue migration is still to be done (as of Nov. 2019). Hopefully addressed at the GRASS GIS Community Sprint Prague 2019.

Setting up the github repository

In order to avoid users being flooded by emails due to the parsing of user contributions which normally triggers an email from github) we reached out to GitHub support in order to temporarily disable these notifications until all source code and selected issues were migrated.

The issue conversion rate was 4 min per trac bug to be converted and uploaded to github. Fairly slow but likely due to the API rate limit imposed and the fact that the migration script above generates a lot of API requests rather than combined ones..
Note to future projects to be migrated: use the new gihub import API (unfortunately we got to know about its existence too late in our migration process).

Here out timings which occurred during the GRASS GIS project migration from SVN to github:

  • grass repo: XX hours (all GRASS GIS 7.x code)
  • grass-legacy repo: XX hours (all GRASS GIS 3.x-6.x code)
  • NNN issues: XX hours – forthcoming.

New issue reporting template

In order to guide the user when reporting new issues, we will develop a small template – forthcoming.

Email notifications: issues to grass-dev and commits to grass-commit

We changed the settings from SVN post-hook to Github commit notifications and they flow in smoothly into the grass-commit mailing list. Join it to follow the development.

Overall, after now several months of using our new workflow we can state that things work fine.

On February 4, 2006 OSGeo held its first meeting in Chicago, with 25 participants representing 18 groups and over 20 different Open Source GIS projects, and 39 others participating via Internet Relay Chat. During the meeting, participants made important decisions in the formation and organization of the foundation, including the name, structure and purpose. The consensus reached in Chicago opened the way for the establishment of a productive and representative foundation.

Today we are happy to announce that the we have meanwhile over 32,800 unique subscribers in the huge list of over 290 OSGeo mailing lists!

And: check out the web site of the OSGeo foundation.

More to come this year!

… see here for the growing list of events