[GRASS-dev] 6.4.1 blocker bugs? more on d.legend

[Helena Mitasova]

>
>> - would it be possible to change the text:
>> "Placement as percentage of screen coordinates" to
>> "Size and placement as % of screen (should it be display?)
>> coordinates"?
>
> I agree "coordinates" may be a bit redundant/confusing, but
> grammatically it seems to want some word at the end.   ...?

I kept the coordinates - it just got wrapped to next line
>
> I do like to spell out the whole word instead of just "%".

I am sorry, I have caused some confusion here - all what I wanted to  
be added is the word "size"
everything else can remain the same - so the suggested text could be:

>> Size and placement as percentage of screen coordinates


I changed percent to % because I thought that after adding the word  
Size the text will be too long

> Technically it's relative to the current display frame. But
> the new GUI/GRASS user knows nothing of the d.frame architecture.

that is exactly right, and it is not clear what is meant by screen,  
because the place
on the computer screen where the legend is posted is called "Map  
Display"

> Another problem is that once set you can drag the legend around
> the wx.canvas, at which point only the range of the values you
> gave have meaning, the absolute values become meaningless.

you are exactly right there too - so the at= option for the GUI user  
is there mostly
to control the relative size of the legend (in a rather non-intuitive  
way, but people can deal with it).
Placement still applies when you want your legend to be placed in a  
predefined location
rather than move it by mouse - so "Size and placement" reflects well  
what the numbers do
>
> Do you use xmons/d.frame in your course? is this complaint
> related to that? As long as the legend overlay is not dragged
> over the page, I think it should work as the GUI user would
> expect.
> ?

Given that xmons are going away in GRASS7 and most students are on  
Windows 7
(forget labs with pre-installed software - students bring their own  
laptops to class these days)
I avoid xmon, although we use command line a lot.
And the firs thing users do is drag legend over the page as it is  
suggested by d.legend GUI
"Drag legend object with mouse in pointer mode to position"

I still use d.mon a lot in my research work because I am so used to it  
and a few things I still
like better there, but I am trying to adapt to life without d.mon and  
Martin has been
doing a great job making it easier.

I am not asking for any big changes - just adding the word "Size" to  
the GUI for at= option.
>
>
>> Unless you read the man page very carefully it is hard to
>> find out how to size the legend.
>
> is the "at: bottom,top,left,right" text not showing up above the
> wxPy module GUI's at= entry box, as it does in the tcltk module
> GUI? I thought Martin had implemented that recently.

yes it is there - but you need to have a pretty creative thinking to  
associate
Placement as percentage of screen coordinates (0,0 is lower left)  
at=bottom,top,left,right with size.
Most people read just the word Placement and then click "Use mouse to  
size and place legend"
Adding the word "Size" will make it much clearer.

My point here is that you try to focus the student attention to all  
kinds of sophisticated and advanced
analysis and visualization and they get bogged down on legends and you  
cannot skip the legends because then the maps don't mean anything. It  
does not need too much and it will be great,

Helena
>
>
> Hamish
>
>
>
>