[GRASS-dev] startup

[Paul Kelly]

Hello everyone
To be honest I think the wording still confuses things a little. Simply 
because it takes more than 2 or 3 words to explain the concepts of 
location, mapset, region, co-ordinate system and GIS database. Perhaps 
better to have minimal wording in the start-up screen and a more detailed 
explanation in tool-tip help?

When I started using GRASS I hated how complicated it all was and how much
it made me think about my data and co-ordinate systems but now I really 
appreciate that---because a thorough understanding of locations, regions 
etc. is essential to ensuring you get meaningful results out of your GIS 
analyses.

FWIW I don't think the text in the text-based start-up screen is too bad. 
Here is my slightly improved version of it:

LOCATION: This is the name of a geographic location. It is defined by a
           co-ordinate system and a rectangular boundary. -spearfish- is
           the sample LOCATION provided with GRASS.

MAPSET:   Every GRASS session runs under a particular MAPSET. Associated
           with each MAPSET is a rectangular REGION and a set of maps.

DATABASE: This is the unix directory containing all the GRASS locations.

          The REGION defaults to the entire area of the chosen LOCATION.
          You may change it later with the command: g.region


Paul

On Mon, 31 Jul 2006, Markus Neteler wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Michael has made updates to the startup screen.
> The current state of the entrance screen can be seen
> here:
> http://mpa.itc.it/markus/tmp/new_grass61_startup_2.jpg
> (also valid for the release branch).
>
> Please comment on further modifications.
>
> Markus
>
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