startup GUI - was Re: [GRASS5] New gui.tcl generic user interface

[Markus Neteler]

On Mon, Mar 20, 2006 at 02:51:49PM -0500, Helena Mitasova wrote:
> 
> >>>3) rewriting the GRASS startup GUI.
> >>
> >>esp. the create-new-location text screens.
> >
> >
> >YES!
> 
> we have had this discussion couple times already and everybody agrees 
> that the create-new-location text interface is awful. But it usually 
> dies at this point as other, more important things take the focus away.
> Markus got pretty close by using a temporary location for user to start 
> with and then it was modified for the actual location.
> Markus, do you still have it and should we start from there or has 
> somebody a better idea how to do it?

The sad story is that Justin had a nice startup GUI READY in 2000
(I have seen it at HPCC). But he moved to Canada, the code remained there
and got apparently lost.

> After 10 years we now have the sites visualization based on attributes 
> back in GRASS-nviz thanks to Massimo, maybe the startup new location 
> interface can be done now too. I don't know enough about GUI to do 
> something substantial but I can help at least with testing,

Maybe can get Cedric interested? It hopefully doesn't take another
10 years to get a nicer startup screen.

things to do there
- make a nice list of projections and datums (maybe like QGIS, in a DB?
  Or *the* DB from QGIS?)
- have easy-to-edit form for the coordinates and stuff
- functional navigation in the directory tree to find the
  grass database

Markus