QTDRIVER: a Qt graphics driver for GRASS

QTDRIVER is a graphics driver for the GRASS GIS implemented with the Qt toolkit and licensed under the GNU GPL. Because Qt is cross-platform it should be possible to build QTDRIVER for any supported platform, though I've only tried it for Linux/x86 and the Sharp Zaurus. The main advantage of QTDRIVER is that, unlike the XDRIVER supplied with GRASS, it doesn't require the use of the X Window System. This is particularly useful on the Zaurus.

You can download source and binaries from here:

You'll also need the iPAQ/Linux version of GRASS to do anything useful with QTDRIVER on the Zaurus.

Of course, there's no real reason to use QTDRIVER on systems that support X: the XDRIVER is faster and has more features. The main feature missing from QTDRIVER is the ability to resize the display. There's no fundamental reason for this, I just haven't implemented it yet. Also, on the Zaurus I haven't found a way to have the application display an icon in the taskbar while it's running without also having an icon in the Applications tab. If you try to run QTDRIVER from the Applications tab it won't do anything useful. The driver has had some limited testing, but it's likely that there are still bugs to be uncovered.

(Yes, the icon for QTDRIVER on the Zaurus does show the elevation.dem map from the Spearfish data set, reduced to a tiny 29x22 pixels. It gets even smaller on the taskbar.)


Ron Yorston (rmy@pobox.com)
27th July 2003