[GRASS5] GRASS GUI

[Sajith VK]

Hello all,
	I am using GRASS for some time, for both GIS
applications and Image processing. We tried to spread
the use of GRASS in my institute and lack of good GUI
is the first complaint any new user raises. So I wish
to drop my ideas. (Sorry for a long mail........)

Single Window/ Multiwindow
-------------------------------------------
	For GIS applications an integrated single window
application is better. I like thuban, QGis for simple
operations. But for Image processing applications a single
window is not sufficient at all. But in GRASS when I open
multiple display windows, my desktop become cluttered!.

       So I think a "tabbed" approach(like in gedit, firefox etc)
may be better. Each display window should be a "tab" and each
tabs should be "docable".


Tool kit(TK/GTK/QT)
-----------------------------
	Custom application development is very important in
GIS. Hence selection of toolkit decides the way in which
we can develop custom applications based on GRASS. Now each
programmer has his own choice for toolkit. I like Gnome(and uses Gtk),
and similarly someone else may like KDE(and use QT).
	So first a generic outline need to be developed. Later
it should be implemented in both Qt and Gtk(atleast). So we
can have a base application(say grass) and a set of GUI's
(ggrass,kgrass,wxgrass etc). Initially it can be implemented
in one toolkit and later extend to all.


Layers
-----------
	"thuban" has good support for layer concept. But GRASS needs
additional features like "swipe" feature in ERDAS. Also we should be
able to assign transparency to layers. "Legend" editing should be
easy at display level. (as in thuban?).

Bye



--
Change the rules, or the rules will change you
     ---------Kumaranasan