Marc, thanks for the long response and all the information!
My goal IS to have the Pi running JMRI, but "headless" without keyboard, mouse, or monitor. The PC will be a laptop, used now and then for other things, so wireless communication is a nice goal: I could just carry it to the layout room and turn it on. It won't be needed except for decoder programming or a dispatcher to use. Running the layout by myself, I don't need a dispatcher...
I'm new to JMRI, and unclear about its limitations. Maybe that laptop won't be able to program through the Pi to EasyDCC. If so, I could temporarily disconnect the EasyDCC from the Pi and plug it into the laptop running Decoder Pro, but that's not as clean and nice as connecting wirelessly and not moving cable connections. If that is the only way, then I might eventually buy a separate programmer.
