[GRASS5] quickstart guide for newbies

[Otto Dassau]

Hi Moritz,

> Hi everyone,
> 
> I'm working on the GRASS tutorial
> (http://tutorial.grass.it-zone.org/index.html) and I just finished a first
> draft of a chapter for newbies telling them how to get GRASS going very
> quickly (and maybe a bit roughly ;-)). 

I think this chapter is an excellent, brief and simple starting page for 
beginner with lots of necessary information making first steps in GRASS. 

> Could some of you skim through what
> I wrote at http://tutorial.grass.it-zone.org/tenminutes.html, just to
> chack that I didn't lead them to far astray. This chapter is a response to
> the thread on this list concerning the steep entry learning curve of
> newcomers: http://grass.itc.it/pipermail/grass5/2002-May/002923.html.

some ideas I would change or add (maybe not necessary at all):

1) I would describe the use of tcltk in some parts, maybe simply as a 
link to your "Graphical User Interface" chapter, or as a small hint or 
advice. 
e.g.:  in "You have a GRASS database" after point 4., because it isn't 
mentioned in "the chapter called The Most Important Commands to Get
Started",
too.

-> something like: you can start a GUI with tcltkgrass& or ... 
and you can start grass using -text or -tcltk ...
especially for the many newbies used to Windows (click, click)

2) the gdal part in "You have a georeferenced raster file, but don't 
know its geographical coordinates" was a little confusing to me. 

-> 11. The part where you explain "NewLocation". I first thought you
mean 
the temporary Location created in the beginning. Maybe it would become
clearer 
to add a link pointing at: 
http://grass.itc.it/gdp/html_grass5/html/r.in.gdal.html.

-> 12. If all goes well ...leave GRASS and restart GRASS. 
"why" -> maybe there is missing that once you have started a 
GRASS session you cannot switch between Locations ...

3) In "You have a non-georeferenced data file" I would switch subsection
3
"If you have a ..." with 4 "Since your map", bacause that is the way I
would 
proceed ...

- import in XY Location and then georeferencing with the help of your
link 
"Processing Scanned Maps."

These are just some subjective impressions, so maybe I am wrong and 
a beginner wouldn't care about it at all ...

 thanks for your great work 

   Otto