[GRASS-dev] GRASS 6.3.0 release preparation

[Hamish]

> Helena Mitasova wrote:
> > If you ask me what was the most annoying (but not critica) thing
> > that I have found when using GRASS under a deadline - then it was
> > the large default size of the centroid symbol in d.vect.
..
> > So if we could change the default to something smaller - perhaps
> > size 2 rather than 5,

Michael Barton wrote:
> It looks like the default is 8, which is really large for centroids.
> would be fine for centroids. 5 is probably OK for points though.
..
> My preference would be have the centroids turned off by default,
> rather than on as is the current default.

Markus wrote:
> For now I have changes the default symbol size (annoying crosses) from
> 8 to 5 - already looks way better. Maybe it should be default grey to
> be less dominant (would require new parameter scolor= symbol color).

I think we need to separate discussion of defaults for the GUI from
defaults for command line d.vect.

Last time I checked the GUI uses size=5 filled circles for centroids.
As I've complained before, this can be misleading if the data is a
coastline with many small offshore islands which are smaller than the
centroid circle. It effectively generalizes the offshore islands into
circles and is easy to miss. I do like the circle as the default point
feature symbol, but prefer the "x" as the default centroid symbol. In
the GUI I prefer the centroids not be drawn by default, but I prefer
d.vect from the command line to draw centroids. No idea how to make
that happen, outside of feature type tabs and multiple d.vect calls from
the WxGUI.

Helena:
> > (maybe make the default red as the default fill is grey). This was
> > already discussed some time ago too.
Michael:
> This is a problem since there is no way to set point colors separately
> from general line/fill colors that also affect polygons and arcs. I
> can see the benefit of it, but it would require yet another pair of
> options for d.vect (and updating of the TclTk options panel in the
> GUI).

but there is! Some time ago I added D_symbol2():
 * The same as D_symbol(), but it uses a primary and secondary color
 * instead of line and fill color. The primary color is used to draw
 * stroke lines (STRINGs) and as the fill color for polygons. The
 * secondary color is used for polygon outlines.

d.vect uses it for -c random colors. try:
 d.vect -c bugsites size=5
 d.vect -c bugsites size=10 icon=basic/triangle

neat, huh?


Also you may notice that d.vect -c does some other magic, e.g. for the
spearfish "fields" map, the areas are filled with random color but the
centroids (icon=any) and boundary colors are steady; vs bugsites where
the symbol color changes.


Hamish