[GRASS-dev] Re: [GRASS-CVS] michael: grass6/lib/init gis_set.tcl, 1.24, 1.25

[Michael Tiemann]

On Tue, 2006-07-18 at 09:15 +0200, Moritz Lennert wrote:
> Michael Barton wrote:
> 
> > Anyway, I was trying to respond to numerous comments about the startup being
> > confusing to a new but knowledgeable user. The startup screen gives people
> > their first impression of the program. So whatever goes there should
> > encourage them to work with the software. I agree that what I stuck in the
> > new screen should be improved, but also feel that some hand-holding to new
> > users would be worthwhile.
> 
> I agree with Markus and Helena that the terminology should stay as it is.
> I actually don't think that it is the terminology that makes the 
> start-up difficult for users, it is the fact that they actually have to 
> think about projection and extent when many just want to open a file 
> they received for which they know neither...
> 
> What about keeping the original terms with some pop-up help at 
> mouse-over explaining what the term means ?

And/or some script-based help that can provide some guidance, such as
"this looks like a GIS file associated with the US Census TIGER
database.  If this is correct, your projection is likely $PROJ and your
extent is likely $EXTENT.  Should I use those values?"  Or, "this looks
like a GIS file associated with a Magellan GPS device.  If this is
correct..."

I believe that there are a few simple use cases--electronic versions of
USGS maps, GPS reference data, etc--that cover literally millions of
intelligent, but not sophisticated, users.  These users don't
necessarily need toolbar help in figuring out which band of LANDSAT data
they want to overlay, but they do want to map demographic or geocache
data, and it would be HUGE if GRASS made it as easy as possible to be
successful in those two use cases.

M

M