[GRASS5] Proposal for GRASS UI roadmap

[Martin Wegmann]

On Monday 07 November 2005 10:23, Paolo Cavallini wrote:
> Just a short note (hope nobody will get offended by it): 

I hope so as well ,-)

> 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

very important point. All raster manipulation programs (from GIMP to 
ERDAS/ENVI) work with multi-monitor setups and I got used to them very much.
Perhaps the user should be able to decide if he/she wants a multi- or 
single-window workspace. 

> 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).

well, as I agree with you that "usual" users think that the tcltk UI is 
primitive however I doubt  that GRASS-d.m shall/can fully merge with QGIS and 
fullfill all user interests which Michael is currently inquiring.

I use QGIS frequently to view raster data/vector data (and hopefully soon) 
modify vector data -- in general: doing "low-level" GIS work which can be 
achieved using QGIS very easily. 
For this kind of work I don't need a fully-blown GIS/Raster manipulation 
software like GRASS. I want QGIS to start quickly, do my work and exit again 
unlike GRASS which is running nearly permanently and which I favour because 
of the enormous amount of  functionalities. 
Perhaps the comparison between ArcView and ArcInfo is best. The first one is 
for low-level GIS work, the second is for all the other work. I don't want to 
start ArcInfo functionality when I just want to do some quick modification. 

With GRASS and QGIS we have the same problem (in my opinion) plus the problem 
that GRASS is not only a GIS but a raster manipulation program as well which 
needs a CLI too. 

This does not contradict your idea of using GRASS commands inside QGIS but 
using GRASS solely via QGIS. 

Concerning the man-power for GRASS C coding; I am not sure about it but I 
think that C programmers and QT/GTK programmer are different kind of persons 
or at least their interests are different. At QT/GTK programmer is keen to 
develop a UI but not to code C, therefore I think the amount of 
C-programmer-man-power would not be diminished. 

regards, Martin

> 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.
>
> ...

-- 
Martin Wegmann

DLR - German Aerospace Center
German Remote Sensing Data Center
@
Dept.of Geography
Remote Sensing and Biodiversity Unit
&&
Dept. of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology
University of Wuerzburg
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg

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