[GRASS5] GUI sections and metadata or history graphs.

[Cedric Shock]

On Friday 10 March 2006 07:36, Michael Barton wrote:

> What kind of information do you envision as coming out the the GUI guidance
> section for use by a GUI?
>

Hierarchical or grouping arrangement of options.

Here's an example, using the familiar g.region command:
I've listed possible GUI sections below each option

There are actually quite a few ways to organize options like these. They could 
be grouped by what they affect (everything, bounds, resolution,  display 
options, effects) or by how they work, or even by what sort of data they go 
with (raster, 3D, vector). Here I've arranged them by how they work.

  -d   Set from default region
guisection: Set from existing
  -g   Print the current region (shell script style)
guisection: Print options|Shell script
  -p   Print the current region
guisection: Print options
  -l   Print the current region in lat/long on current ellipsoid/datum
guisection: Print options
  -e   Print the current region extent
guisection: Print options
  -c   Print the current region map center coordinates
guisection: Print options
  -m   Print region resolution in meters (geodesic)
guisection: Print options
  -a   Align region to resolution (default = align to bounds, works only for 
2D resolution )
guisection: Values|Bounds
  -u   Do not update the current region
guisection: Effects
  -3   Print also 3D settings
guisection: Print options
  -b   Print the maximum bounding box in lat/long on WGS84 (-g mode only)
guisection: Print options|Shell script

Parameters:
  region   Set current region from named region
guisection: Set from existing
    rast   Set region to match this raster map
guisection: Set from existing
  rast3d   Set region to match this 3D raster map (both 2D and 3D values)
guisection: Set from existing
    vect   Set region to match this vector map
guisection: Set from existing
  3dview   Set region to match this 3dview file
guisection: Set from existing
       n   Value for the northern edge
guisection: Values|Bounds
       s   Value for the southern edge
guisection: Values|Bounds
       e   Value for the eastern edge
guisection: Values|Bounds
       w   Value for the western edge
guisection: Values|Bounds
       t   Value for the top edge
guisection: Values|Bounds
       b   Value for the bottom edge
guisection: Values|Bounds
     res   Grid resolution 2D (both north-south and east-west)
guisection: Values|Resolution|All
    res3   3D grid resolution (north-south, east-west and top-bottom)
guisection: Values|Resolution|All
   nsres   North-south grid resolution 2D
guisection: Values|Resolution
   ewres   East-west grid resolution 2D
guisection: Values|Resolution
   tbres   Top-bottom grid resolution 3D
guisection: Values|Resolution
    zoom   Raster map to zoom into
guisection: Set from existing
   align   Raster map to align to
guisection: Set from existing
    save   Save the current region to region definition file
guisection: Effects

Then, as a GUI designer, I'd read these in in order, assuming the first things 
to appear should be the first things to show, but grouping stuff together in 
boxes, making a hierarchy like this:

Set from existing
  region
  rast
  rast3d
  vect
  3dview
  zoom
  align
  -d
Values
  Bounds
    n
    s
    e
    w
    -a
  Resolution
    All
      res
      res3d
    nsres
    ewres
    tbres
Effects
  save
  -u
Print Options
  Shell Script
    -g
    -b
  -p
  -l
  -e
  -c
  -m
  -3

Then with the GUI I could just display this hierarchy, all expanded, with 
captions and input boxes (Imagine the current interface laid out like a web 
page with headings), or I could use a fancy tree widget, with only required 
options that don't have defaults already expanded and showing their widgets, 
or I could make nested tabs with a tab for each set of options (ICK!), or I 
could lay out options with just one row of tabs, a maximum number of tabs, 
and a desired height to stay under.

Tab example and what's on each page: The active tab is marked with a *.
[*Set from existing][Values|Bounds][Values|Resolution][Effects][Print Options]
  region
  rast
  rast3d
  vect
  3dview
  zoom
  align
  -d

[Set from existing][*Values|Bounds][Values|Resolution][Effects][Print Options]
  n
  s
  e
  w
  -a

[Set from existing][Values|Bounds][*Values|Resolution][Effects][Print Options]
  All
    res
    res3d
  nsres
  ewres
  tbres

[Set from existing][Values|Bounds][Values|Resolution][*Effects][Print Options]
  save
  -u

[Set from existing][Values|Bounds][Values|Resolution][Effects][*Print Options]
  Shell Script
    -g
    -b
  -p
  -l
  -e
  -c
  -m
  -3

Expansion on last idea: a packer GUI can actually measure the sizes of boxes 
before deciding how to pack them. Here I'll just use rows. Say a heading 
costs 1 row, an option 2 rows, and a flag 1 row. Looking at the current GUI 
we can display about 8 rows on small monitors, but we really don't want to 
display more than 5 tabs (multiple rows of tabs are worse than scrolling in 
my opinion). A user might want these numbers to be a bit higher on higher 
resolution monitors.

So here are the sizes of what is inside widgets:

Set from existing - 15 rows
Values - 22 rows
  Bounds - 9 rows
  Resolution - 11 rows
    All - 4 rows
Effects - 3 rows
Print Options - 9 rows
  Shell Script - 2 rows

We have 49 rows of data to lay out. So we figure out about the amount to put 
in each tab, by dividing by 5, and taking the maximum of that and 8. So now 
we've decided to put at least 10 rows in each tab. So we start doing it:

* Starting with the biggest section, Values, we offer it two tabs because it 
has at least 20 rows.
** Recurse into values
** We have 20 rows to distribute here amongst 2 tabs. Starting with the 
biggest, Resolution, we give it a tab.
** We give the remaining tab to the remaining sections (Bounds)
* We have 27 rows to deal with, and 3 tabs left. 9 rows wins a tab.
* The biggest is 15, we award one tab to Set from existing
* Now we have 12 rows; max(6, 8)=8 wins a tab.
* The biggest is 9, we award a tab to Print Options
* Everything left gets the remaining one tab

Notes:
A section can refuse extra tabs (if it doesn't have subsections). If it does 
then the layout system can either continue, adding the leftover tabs into 
those distributed to the remaining sections or it can remove the section and 
its tabs from the layout algorithm and relayout everything that's remaining.

If there are lots of little sections left over and we have multiple tabs left 
we just start adding them together in order until we have a new section 
bigger than the minimum size.

Now we have the following tabs:
Values|Bounds
Values|Resolution
Set from existing
Print Options
Effects

We put them back in order by where a part of them first appeared:
Set from existing
Values|Bounds
Values|Resolution
Effects
Print Options

And display them as demonstrated above.

I hope that demonstrates my motivation,

--Cedric Shock