[GRASS5] Proposal for GRASS UI roadmap

[Paolo Cavallini]

Just a short note (hope nobody will get offended by it): I think Michael and 
others have done a great job improving the tctk interface (every time I 
compile grass, I have pleasant surprises!), but it is a reality that "normal" 
people sees its look&feel as rather primitive. What we (grass and freeGIS 
users and developers) need is enlarging our user base, far too small compared 
to grass potential.
Our experience teaching FreeGIS is that integrating grass with qgis gives an 
easy way of approaching gis problems, without a steep learning curve. Of 
course issues remain; in my view:
- integrating NVIZ (the work from ACS is a good first step in this direction)
- putting most/all grass modules in the qgis-grass dialog (not difficult, but 
may be boring)
- multiple monitors: I got used to them, and I agree they are very useful, but 
most people stopped using in most applications anyway
Moreover, we have the advantage of working with the live and thriving qgis 
community, which is an extremely positive factor.
I am worried about the duplication of efforts I have seen recently; we have 
limited forces, and we would better concentrate on a common line; for 
instance, I do not think a printing interface can be much better than the one 
currently available in qgis.
In short my suggestion is: let's concentrate on qgis as a frontend, and 
strengthening grass as backend (eg fixing functionality bugs, making new 
modules, releasing new versions more often).
All the best, and thanks to all for your work.
pc

At 05:59, domenica 06 novembre 2005, Michael Barton has probably written:
> Colleagues
>
> A couple months back I suggested a discussion on the specifications for the
> next generation user interface for GRASS. Perhaps because it was summer--or
> perhaps because everyone is just so happy with what I¹ve done so far
> ;-)--there were few takers. However the comments were useful. I¹ve included
> all of them in the attached text file as I promised to do.
...
-- 
Paolo Cavallini
email+jabber: cavallini at faunalia.it
www.faunalia.it
Piazza Garibaldi 5 - 56025 Pontedera (PI), Italy   Tel: (+39)348-3801953