[GRASS-dev] Re: startup screen language

[Michael Barton]

Thanks Helena,

I'm taking a bit of a break after the georectifier and a bunch of minor bug
fixes, but will work on this soon. I like Hamish's thoughts too. A couple of
technical issues...

Slide out drawers (as in Lorenzo's start screen) are not obviously doable in
TclTk. 

Mouseover help text is available for labels.

However, I'd like to get a brief explanation/definition of these critically
important GRASS terms to the users very directly. So, I'd like to try to fit
the text in in parentheses. However, I can't make the entry screen any
larger, to keep it fitting within low-resolution screens and data
projectors. And we don't want TOO much text on the entry screen. Maybe a
combination of short definition and more help with mouseover text. I'll play
with it and see what I can come up with, then let you all see what you
think.

Michael
__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton



> From: Helena Mitasova <hmitaso at unity.ncsu.edu>
> Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 23:52:52 -0400
> To: Hamish <hamish_nospam at yahoo.com>
> Cc: <grass-dev at grass.itc.it>
> Subject: Re: [GRASS-dev] michael: grass6/lib/initgis_set.t cl, 1.24, 1.25
> 
> Just to make sure that this discussion does not die out without
> a solution, I read once more through the discussion and to summarize,
> it looks like there is some agreement that the text on the startup
> pannel should be as follows (more comments are welcome - this is
> still evolving):
> 
> 1. No problems with the welcome message
> (Hamish complained about grammar, but nobody else so I guess it is OK):
> "Welcome to GRASS GIS version $GRASSVERSION"
> "The world's leading open source GIS"
> 
> 2. For location, mapset, it looks like the latest change by Markus is
> acceptable
> to most, so the text would be:
> 
> "Select an existing project location and mapset
> or define a new project location"
> 
> Project Location
> Accessible Mapsets
> Create new mapset in selected location
> Define new project location by
> 
> with brief explanation for each selection
> - pop-up help at mouse-over or tooltips were suggested,
> or the less favored text added in parenthesis (that may crowd the
> startup pannel too much)
> Just a note1: Lorenzo's GRASS has a very nice example of info button
> for each selection
> on the Mac GRASS Start pannel that slides out on the side with very
> detailed
> description for each option. I found it very intuitive and useful.
> 
> and my note2: project location interpreted as a location on hard drive
> and as geospatial location are both  valid interpretations and
> I don't see a problem here
> 
> 3. The text for "path to GRASS database" is somewhat open due to the
> term
> database interpreted as DB for attributes - the following has been
> suggested:
> 
> Select GIS database (directory containing GRASS data)
> Workspace
> Projects directory
> Path to location
> Data path
> 
> Any suggestion on which one should be implemented? Or any better idea?
> 
> 4. The language in the startup pannel is the easy part,
> as others have mentioned most new users get really
> stuck when a new location needs to be created
> 
> Define new project location by:
> 
> I will send my thoughts on this in next email with new, better suited
> subject,
> 
> Helena
> 
> On Jul 19, 2006, at 11:11 PM, Hamish wrote:
> 
>>>> I like Michael's suggestion to insert a small blurb under each term
>>>> to help new users:
>>>> 
>>>> Select GIS database
>>>> (directory containing GRASS data)
>>>> 
>>>> Select location
>>>> (projection and optional geographic extents)
>>>> 
>>>> Select mapset
>>>> (GIS files)
>>>> 
>>>> This way, we keep the traditional terms that appear in the Grass
>>>> literature, and the meanings are much more defined.
>> 
>> 
>> or as tooltips, to keep the page clean.
>> 
>> 
>> Hamish
>> 
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> 
>