aboutus(1)	       Grass User's Manual	       aboutus(1)



GGRRAASSSS DDeevveellooppmmeenntt TTeeaamm



       IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn

       The GRASS Development Team is pleased to announce this new
       home for the open  source  Geographic  Resources  Analysis
       Support	System	(GRASS).   GRASS has been under continual
       development since 1982 and has involved a large number  of
       federal	US agencies, universities, and private companies.
       The core components of GRASS and  the  management  of  the
       integration of the efforts into GRASS releases were accom-
       plished by the Construction Engineering Resesarch  Labora-
       tory  (CERL)  in  Champaign, Illinois.  CERL completed the
       last combined release of GRASS as version 4.1 in 1992  and
       provided updates and patches to this release through 1995.
       It has been estimated  that  several  million  dollars  of
       GRASS  software	development efforts across the government
       have been completed since  the  4.1  release.  Since  1997
       GRASS is developed by a consortium of worldwide researcher
       and programmers at  universities  and  private  companies.
       GRASS GIS is released under GNU General Public License.


       PPllaannss

       We have several goals for the release of GRASS including:

		     _W_e  _h_a_v_e  _r_e_l_e_a_s_e_d _G_R_A_S_S _v_e_r_s_i_o_n _4_._2_._x GRASS
		     4.2.x consists of the GRASS 4.1 engine  with
		     the  addition of many new programs that have
		     been submitted by the user community.



		     _R_e_v_a_m_p_e_d _d_o_c_u_m_e_n_t_a_t_i_o_n_.  In keeping with the
		     tradition	of  making GRASS available to the
		     greatest audience	possible,  are	releasing
		     new  versions of the documentation. The cur-
		     rent Users,  Programmers,	and  Installation
		     Guides  are currently available in Adobe PDF
		     format.



		     _T_h_e _r_e_l_e_a_s_e _o_f _v_e_r_s_i_o_n _5_._0_.   Major  changes
		     to  this version includes support for float-
		     ing-point numbers and the	separation  of	0
		     and  null.   This version of GRASS generates
		     DIFFERENT grass  format  files  due  to  the
		     floating and null support.


       CCuurrrreenntt SSttaattuuss

       As  of  December  1997,	we have released GRASS 4.2 to the
       public.	GRASS 5 has been released under  GPL  license  in
       Oktober	1999  and already undergone several beta releases
       towards GRASS 5.0stable.


       TThhee FFuuttuurree ooff GGRRAASSSS

       Our main goal is to keep GRASS alive  and  prospering  and
       available to the user community.  We hope that the contin-
       ued interest in GRASS will result in its further  develop-
       ment and enhancement.


	RReesseeaarrcchheerrss


       List  of authors Other cooperating scientists, groups, and
       agencies


       GGRRAASSSS DDeevveellooppmmeenntt TTeeaamm


       AAddddrreessss::

       GRASS Development Team

       U.S. Headquarters (GRASS 4 coordination)

       Center for Applied Geographic and Spatial Research

       Baylor University

       PPhhoonnee:: (254) 710-2361

       eemmaaiill:: grass@baylor.edu

       P.O. Box 97354 Waco, TX 76798

       European Headquarters (GRASS 5 coordination)

       Institute of Physical Geography-Landscape Ecology

       University of Hannover

       Schneiderberg 50

       30167 Hannover

       Germany


       _L_a_s_t _c_h_a_n_g_e_d_: _$_D_a_t_e_: _2_0_0_2_/_0_1_/_2_5 _0_5_:_4_5_:_3_2 _$



GRASS 5.0					       aboutus(1)
