[Qgis-developer] Fwd: [SoC] OSGeo Google Summer of Code 2014 - ideas needed!

[Martin Dobias]

Hi

On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 4:33 PM, Régis Haubourg
<regis.haubourg at eau-adour-garonne.fr> wrote:
> Hi,
> qgis is still very weak concerning pure cartographic uses cases with size
> varying symbols, and have no working legend for this, and more generally for
> all data defined symbology.
> I've already shared my ideas with Martin Dobias who seems to have legend
> refactoring in mind.
>
> Since this is critic for a cartographic tool, and since data defined
> symbologies can't be guessed before real data is rendered, we have something
> that needs some deep investigations.
>
> Putting this in a developpement contract seems dangerous in such early
> stage. It be could either be a topic for the next hackfest, or a GsoC.
>
> Martin, any opinion on this? Others?

It could be a GSoC project if we knew what do we want to implement.
Currently we just have a use case in the mind ("generate nice legend
for symbols with data-defined scale"). But we have not yet elaborated
the concept how this would be done. The mentioned use case is probably
not the only scenario where it would be nice to have customized
legend. So we need to think more about other possible use cases (what
to do if there are combinations, e.g. data-defined scale, data-defined
color, data-define rotation, categories) and how the user would define
their requirements. Without a good design, we can end up with a poor
solution that satisfies just the simplest use case, but fails with all
others. I do not feel confident proposing such project without having
a clear idea as that may lead to high risk of failure.

Regards
Martin