[Qgis-community-team] macros, example dataset

[Otto Dassau]

Hi,

On Wed, 07 May 2008 08:22:58 -0700
Tara Athan <tara_athan at alt2is.com> wrote:

> These macros from Gary are a good headstart. If we discover other 
> categories, we can use these as a template.

ok, good - I added Gary's macros but would need the \cornersize definition for
the \toolbtn and \button command, too?

> A question for you latex gurus - Is it possible to include icons, such 
> as the icons for GRASS modules, in a macro for an inline style, or would 
> these need to be specified manually? The idea would be if the writer 
> refers to a tool having an icon, this icon is automatically included.

I don't know, does anybody have a solution for this? I also think it would be
pretty complicated to use, because you would need to lookup (or know) the whole
icon list, which includes almost 100 at the moment. 

> Now let me bring up a more challenging issue- a dataset for examples.
> I would like to see a complete dataset with data in many formats, all in 
> the same location.
> All examples in the manual would then use the same dataset.
> 
> I have no preference to the location - we could build from the Alaska 
> dataset by adding files in different formats (GRASS, etc), or if someone 
> has a better idea, I am willing to consider it.

we could keep alaska, and try to extend the data for the whole country with vmap
(don't know what is in there). For a smaller, interesting region we could also
include srtm, landsat etc. Maybe there are other (official) free data available?
It would also be nice to have some OGC (WMS,WFS) servers available.

 Otto

> Tara
> 
> Gary Sherman wrote:
> > On May 6, 2008, at 7:44 PM, Tara Athan wrote:
> >> OK, I was able to download the latex version of the manual and take a 
> >> quick look through the various sections.
> >> What I see is a lot of inconsistency in format between sections.
> >> This is to be expected, I guess, if the sections are written by 
> >> different authors and there is no agreement beforehand as to format.
> >
> > The manual has evolved over time with a number of authors working at 
> > different times so just like any "code base" you'll find these types 
> > of things.
> >
> >> But I think we need to aim for greater consistency for the 1.0 manual 
> >> release.
> >> For a start, I would like to have macros for inline styles to 
> >> distinguish command line inputs, file names, buttons and so on.
> >> I see this done frequently in software manuals-  there is a different 
> >> style of type for each category, and these are clearly spelled out in 
> >> the introduction.
> >>
> >> At present there is a wide variety of formats being used.  \textsl is 
> >> used for a lot of different things, so it is not obvious when you see 
> >> text formated as \textsl what it corresponds to. And the same type of 
> >> item, such as an input field selection, is sometimes \textsl, 
> >> sometimes in quotes, sometimes \textbf, ...
> >>
> > Rather than choosing a specific markup such as \textsl for an item, I 
> > would suggest using new commands to provide a layer of abstraction. 
> > This way you can simply modify the command definition to change all 
> > occurences of, for example, a tool button.
> >
> > Here are the commands I used in the FOSS4G2007 QGIS workshop document:
> >
> > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> > % my commands
> > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> > \newcommand{\button}[1]{\cornersize{0.1}\ovalbox{\textsf{\scriptsize#1}}}
> > \newcommand{\classname}[1]{\textsf{\textbf{#1}}}
> > \newcommand{\fieldname}[1]{\textsl{#1}}
> > \renewcommand{\filename}[1]{\texttt{#1}}
> > \newcommand{\keystroke}[1]{\fbox{\textsf{\scriptsize#1}}}
> > \newcommand{\menuopt}[1]{\textsf{#1}}
> > \newcommand{\method}[1]{\textsf{\textit{#1}}}
> > \newcommand{\server}[1]{\textit{#1}}
> > \newcommand{\sqltable}[1]{\textsf{\textbf{#1}}}
> > \newcommand{\toolbtn}[1]{\cornersize{7mm}\Ovalbox{\textsf{\scriptsize#1}}} 
> >
> > \newcommand{\usertext}[1]{\texttt{#1}}
> >
> > So you would markup a tool button like this: \toolbtn{Add Vector Layer}
> >
> > This in turn is converted according to the command definition, 
> > resulting in an oval outline of the text in sans-serif scriptsize font.
> >
> > Of course you can tweak the commands as the team sees fit. The obvious 
> > advantage is you can consistently apply the same markup to the same 
> > items and easily change the style at any time by editing the commands 
> > in the preamble of the document.
> >
> > -gary
> >
> > -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
> > Gary Sherman
> > Chair, QGIS Project Steering Committee
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> >
> >
> 
>