[GRASS5] Suggestions for gui discussion

[Daniel Calvelo]

Hopping into the discussion, four points:

On 11/15/05, Wolf Bergenheim <wolf+grass at bergenheim.net> wrote:
> On 11/15/2005 08:11 AM, Michael Barton wrote:
>
> You asked for it. So here comes. (; Georeferencing UI is EXTREMELY bad.
> When I run I.points I also have to open qgis with another map of the
> same location to get the real co-ordinates. it would be nice to be able
> to force GRASS to open 2 windows. One with the map to be rectified and
> another of the correct location (as an option, since one might not know
> the co-ordinates) (as was my case). Then one should be able to pick a
> point in one window and then either enter the co-ordinates or click in
> the other window for the corresponding window.

point 1: This has been asked before. The (proprietary, commercial) GIS
GeoConcept has a mode with a split screen, where both views are linked
in position and zoom but the visibility of the "objects" (itś fully
object-oriented, so the concept of "layer" is quite strange to it) is
independent. This is GREAT for digitizing, visual analysis and so on.

Such a linking between two monitors (maybe just thoughtfully using
g.region save) would be a good addition to d.m.

Other nice (and differentiating) features of QGIS are:

point 2: "Configurable" thumbnail views and

point 3: Location bookmarks.

Feature 3 I guess could be easily implemented using g.region save; as
for 2, a button for png saving at subresolution and putting back the
image into another button shouldn't be much of a headache. But
indicating current region as a frame within the thumbnail is (AFAICT)
a little harder.

point 4: Something that is currently lacking a bit in QGIS (I'd say
JUMP has the best support of current FLOSS GISes) is thematic
cartography: classifiers, color selection and so on. That is a huge
work in UI design. I would dare to suggest that most novice GIS users
do begin with thematic cartography, not raster processing, so maybe
this is a strategic area for adoption. But then, personally I think
that this would yield the most benefit if done in QGIS, and not GRASS.

Just my S/. 0.07

Daniel.