List of new features in GRASS GIS 8.0

GRASS GIS 8.0 is actively developed and maintained with a first 8.0.0 stable release in XXX 2021. In total, it comes with almost ​800 fixes and improvements with respect to the previous stable releases 7.8.x. This page summarizes the manifold new features which have been added to GRASS 8.0.

What's new in a nutshell

After more than 3 year of development the new stable release GRASS GIS 8.0 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.

Lists of new features:

• ​https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pulls?q=is%3Apr+label%3Aenhancement+is%3Aclosed
• ​https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/milestone/4?closed=1

GRASS GIS 8

• provides a completely new first-time user experience
• the improved graphical user interface streamlines how users interact with their data
• dark-themed interface support
• image collection support and band names
• Python 3 scripting
• spatio-temporal data analysis
• HPC cluster and cloud support

Experimental features available for download now include

• attribute plots
• buffer statistics
• road centerlines
• vector attribute update with Python syntax
• mass-preserving interpolation
• transect generation
• coastal, stream, and dam flooding
• longest flow path
• iterative sub-watershed delineation
• valley flatness
• cost-distance area connectivity
• Sentinel, MODIS, USGS, and GBIF data download
• edge detection
• user and producer accuracies
• ... and much more.

Project management: issues, fixes, and ongoing improvements are publicly accessible at GitHub.

Releases

• For more details than on this overview page, see list here:
  • Release/8.0.0-News (DD MM 2021)
• The 8.0 release development was officially moved to a dedicated release branch on Nov 13, 2021: ​https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/tree/releasebranch_8_0

Graphical User Interface

GRASS GIS 8.0 graphical user interface comes with an entirely new concept of startup.

See ... TODO

Modules (commands)

A number of relevant improvements have been made (selected list):

General modules

• G80:...

Raster modules

• r.geomorphon: Add geomorphon profiling feature and two zenith/nadir comparison modes. Remove the multires mode, which was broken. Refine documentation and code style.
• G80:...

Vector modules

• G80:...

Imagery modules

Band support

• G80:...

Temporal GIS modules

• G80:...

Graphical user interface

• wxGUI ...

Scripting

Major efforts have been taken to port all Python scripts to Python 3.6

Database support

• PostgreSQL driver: ...

Python 3 support

• Code formatting with black
• Hundreds of PEP8 fixes with flake8

User Manuals - Documentation

Translations

Translations are managed in Transifex (please join and translate messages): ​https://www.transifex.com/grass-gis/grass7

User manual pages improvements

• numerous user manual pages have received major or minor improvements
• ...

GRASS GIS 7 Library changes

• ...

PROJ support

PROJ 4 to PROJ 7 compatibility implemented.

• ...

GDAL support

GDAL 3 compatibility improved with speed-ups.

Source Code Portability

• Python-3 support implemented across the tree
• FreeBSD: ...
• Mac: ...
• OSGeo4W: ...

Unit tests / CI

• (GitHub Actions activated in master: ​https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/actions)

JSON / REST support

• json parser: ...

Docker support

• ...

GRASS GIS 8.0 Addons

There are numerous new addons which enlarge the already impressive list of addons available (see ​http://grass.osgeo.org/grass8/manuals/addons/):

• G7A:...

Addons moved to core

These modules have been moved to core GRASS GIS (and removed from addons grass8 branch):

• r.object.geometry

Migrating from GRASS GIS 7 to version 8.x

Nothing special to care about.