Invitation to Participate in the monthly GMT Advisory Meeting - August 12, 01:30 UTC

Announcements
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We are continuing our regular monthly meetings. The next meeting is Wednesday, August 12⋅1:30 – 2:30 am UTC. These meetings are open to all GMT users and developers. They provide an opportunity to discuss ongoing developments, share experiences, ask questions, and contribute ideas for the future of GMT.

This next meeting will be held at a more APAC friendly time. Every third meeting is scheduled to better support our eastern hemisphere community.

The meeting will take place through a Zoom session. As a precaution against abuse from third parties, we are not posting the Zoom link publicly. If you are interested in participating (even if only to listen), please reply here with a contact email where we can send the Zoom link, or contact me directly via forum message.

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20260812T2130&p1=179&ah=1

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Hi Solar.

It seems to me that the link isn’t set up correctly. This one is.
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20260812T2130&p1=179&ah=1

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Thanks for catching that. I revised my post.

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“Again”???

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Thank you for the feedback — we genuinely want to see more community engagement across all regions.

On the specific point about Europe being left out: participants from Europe often make up close to half the attendees in the GMT Advisory meeting, including our most active community developer, so representation there is actually quite strong. And the meeting times weren’t picked arbitrarily — they were set based on participant feedback and survey data gathered from the community itself.

We’re always open to hearing more input as the community grows, and we welcome your perspective as we work to balance community needs with the resources we have available.

1 Like
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GMT Advisory Group monthly meeting summary for August 12, 01:30 UTC

Original agenda and notes

  1. Release of GMT 6.7.0

    1. Notes or lingering issues to be resolved

      1. Joaquim foresees issues that will need to be addressed.

      2. A past issue from debian package manager, may cause problems in less used systems.

      3. David is upgrading with home brew on his mac.

        1. Homebrew receipt occurred quickly,an encouraging.

        2. Devid resorts a successful homebrew installation.

      4. New graphical tool that Joaquim developed to generate GMT scripts in Julia. (i'GMT) Feels it is about 75-80 present capable

        1. Should run on three OS’s

        2. Needs qt vtk, tbb concerned about potential dependency mismatches.

        3. Unable to test on pure linux system.

    2. Thoughts about improving the release process?

  2. GMT/EarthScope Poster for AGU December meeting

    1. Abstract was submitted, thank you for your contributions

    2. We need to flesh out what should be presented in the poster

      1. Focus is the EarthScope support and stewardship of the GMT community

      2. Highlight resources that help invite or guide users to how GMt may help them

      3. Also elements to support building the contributors community.

      4. Other ideas?

      5. Include various interfaces based on GMT

        1. pygmt,

        2. gmt julia,

        3. Interactive gmt

  3. Update on transfer of GMT Forum and Remote Datasets to EarthScope/AWS infrastructure

    1. Still establishing the Earthscope S3 bucket and path for the remote data server

    2. Also configuring related services

      1. static, candidate, etc

      2. Are others needed?

    3. Joaquim seeing issues with alternate mirror sites, concerned more intensive testing to verify or identify functionality.

  4. Ideas for attracting and supporting contributors

    1. Supporting (funding) AI access to assist contributors?

      1. Support for up to 6 developers approved

        1. DonDong, Federico and Joaquim being established

        2. When can the license for Claude be used?

        3. Joaquim tried ChatGPT and he had to have Claude fix the problems ChatGPT worked on.

        4. Claude better anticipates problems better.

      2. Any other contributing developers to consider?

  5. Next Meeting at Regular time.

    1. 18:00 UTC (14:00 EDT) Thursday, September 10 (2026-09-10T18:00Z)?

List of participants:

Solar Smith

Federico Esteban

Joaquim Luis

David Caress

Quick recap (Zoom AI Companion)

The meeting focused on updates related to the recent GMT 6.7.0 release, with Joaquim reporting some minor issues and fixes encountered during the process. Solar discussed ongoing work on the EarthScope data server and the upcoming GMT EarthScope poster for AGU, seeking input on content and themes to highlight, such as new interfaces like PyGMT, GMT.jl, and the new graphical tool IGMT. Joaquim provided details about the development and testing of IGMT, mentioning its compatibility and current capabilities. The group also touched on the status of a code subscription and access, with Solar noting delays due to personal schedules. There was a brief comparison of AI tools, with Joaquim expressing a clear preference for Claude over ChatGPT for their tasks. The conversation ended with participants confirming their attendance at the upcoming AGU conference and wishing each other well.

Next steps

Federico

  • Test the new IGMT graphical tool on Linux, following the installation instructions provided.

Solar

  • Follow up with Rob about the status of the code subscription and moving the process along.

  • Start planning and gathering ideas for the GMT EarthScope poster, including highlighting different GMT interfaces (PyGMT, GMT.jl, IGMT).

  • Continue working on updating the EarthScope mirror/data server source.

Summary

GMT 6.7.0 Release Issues

Joaquim reported issues with the GMT 6.7.0 release, including compilation problems on Julia Machinery and Conda, as well as issues with the Debian package manager. Joaquim anticipates potentially needing to release GMT 6.7.1 to address these issues.

Homebrew Receipt Update Discussion

The team discussed an update to the homebrew receipt that was accepted and built successfully. Dave reported successful installation of GMT 6.7.0 with Homebrew on his Mac but had not yet actually tested using it.

GMT Data Server and Poster

Solar provided an update on setting up a data server source, noting progress on implementing a default remote data server alias with DNS control, though other issues have dominated their focus recently. The team discussed creating a GMT EarthScope poster, with Solar seeking ideas on content including themes to highlight GMT’s benefits for new users and the community. Solar mentioned submitting an abstract for a session titled “Really Useful Geophysical Data Tools and Apps” (T013).

GMT Script Generator Tool Development

Joaquim announced a new graphical tool IGMT he is developing that can generate GMT scripts in Julia and is approximately 75-80% complete. The tool is designed to run on all three OSs but faces challenges with dependencies and installation, particularly on Linux and macOS systems. Joaquim mentioned that while the tool can automatically install necessary components on Linux, some testing remains limited due to missing access to certain environments like Windows and WSL.

Linux IGMT Package Testing Discussion

Joaquim discussed testing a new IGMT graphical package on Linux, noting that while compilation was successful and no dependencies were missing, he couldn’t fully test it as he lacks a Linux system and is using Windows system in WSL. Federico confirmed understanding of the technical details, and Joaquim mentioned that the installation instructions remain the same as documented on the page.

Joaquim Documentation and Testing Updates

Joaquim discussed documentation and testing efforts for IGMT, mentioning having many tests available. They noted that the system works well with point clouds and performs fast processing, with no reason it shouldn’t work with MB models when the interface is implemented. Joaquim also mentioned discussing strategies with Claude regarding handling large green areas and regeneration of triangles, though there are some performance challenges with large data sets.

AGU Poster Planning Discussion

The team discussed plans for an AGU poster highlighting different GMT components, including PyGMT, GMT Julia, and the Iinteractive GMT interface that Joakim is developing. Joaquim noted that the interactive GMT tool would be more ready for use by December, and suggested organizing the poster with separate boxes for different GMT ecosystem components. Solar expressed a preference to avoid last-minute preparation rush and requested early planning, leading to agreement on structuring the poster to showcase various GMT interfaces.

Splash Screen and Subscription Updates

Joaquim provided feedback on a splash screen implementation and noted that the first run takes longer than usual due to system recompiling.

AI support for lead developers

Solar discussed accessing subscription codes and confirmed they would follow up with Rob regarding the code subscription process, as Joaquim will be unavailable for two weeks. Joaquim also shared that ChatGPT performed significantly worse than Claude in their testing, requiring Claude to fix ChatGPT’s errors. The next meeting was scheduled for September 10th, though David mentioned he would likely be unavailable as he would be on a ship.

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Is the discussed 6.7.1 release supposed to bring something important for us users or is it “just” a binary package creation/distribution issue?