Screaming Penguin

This is another great science and engineering on Linux article from: Linux Journal (hit the site and get a subscription, very cool zine.) GRASS, the Geographical Resource Analysis Support System was built by CERL (Construction Engineering Research Lab, part of the Army Corps of Engineers) way back in 1982. GRASS is a GIS system, or Geographic Information Systems package designed to be raster analytical (as opposed to vector data systems.) Continued efforts at Baylor by the "GRASS research group" after CERL support ran out have kept GRASS alive and well (credit also goes to Marckus Neteler who has developed Linux GRASS.) GRASS is designed to allow researchers, scientists and engineers to record spatial geographic information. GRASS is Open Source and FREE! Anyone at all interested in geography or spatial data for any discipline should check it out, GRASS is great. GRASS is beneficial not only to geologists and archaeologists, but to anyone that needs spatial data. I am an amatuer herpetologist (reptiles and amphibians) and I am considering using this program to help with range, habitat, distribution and population density recording. What a concept, and the price is right (of course some modifications would be required, and the data would focus on range and habitat, but it is worth consideration.) For more info check out the article in Linux Journal (June 99) or get your own GRASS.