[GRASS-dev] please help review osgeo live dvd summary docs

[Hamish]

Helena wrote:
> the quickstart looks very nice and I did not find any major
> problems (but other may have a look too)
> 
> I just have couple comments:
> 
> - given that OSgeo live will be mostly used by new users
> should you even mention the tcltk interface? It sounds a little
> bit confusing for people who don't know what TclTk is
> and makes GRASS look overly complex.

the doc was written when the wxPython had just hit stable and
when it was not yet the default. I've not removed the reference
to the tcl/tk gui.

> Instead, it would be useful to put here a link to the wxPython
> GUI Help page so that people know where to find explanation of
> what you are talking about later on (especially what each
> button on the layer manager means - the verbal description may
> not be clear enough for some users).

ok, done.

 
> Also, the note about the netbook use probably cannot be
> avoided at this time but in future releases should we just
> redesign the big image on top of startup screen into something
> smaller to avoid this problem?

I think there's a ticket about it. My idea in the past had been
to query the OS for the root window size, then, in order,
selectively not show the "world leading ..." text, the banner
image, and finally the "Welcome to $version" text until it was
small enough.

that paragraph moved to a tip box so that it's not as much in
the way.
 
> Note that for shaded relief (and watersheds ?) there is a
> button in the GUI that is turned on and will add the resulting
> map to the layer manager automatically so you don't need to add
> it, although I am not sure this is set as a default on the
> live DVD version.

it is, the docs were just from an earlier version where you
had to do it manually. now fixed.

> As for the legend and scale - we often have trouble moving
> around the legend with mouse after moving around the scale -
> even if I click on the legend the mouse still picks up the
> scale - there is a way around it but it can be frustrating for
> the first time users. It may be safer to position the legend
> first and the scale second but even that may be tricky. This
> may be the case only for mac users (or perhaps windows) so it
> may work properly on Live DVD under linux.

it's on all platforms, the trick (workaround) is to think of
the d.legend and d.barscale renderings on the wx map canvase
as printed on a plate of glass, which is of finite size. you
can slide those two pieces of glass around, but if you go to
the left of the map decoration you be beyond the left side of
the piece of glass so dragging on nothing. likewise if you
drag off the top or the bottom of the pane of glass it won't
move it either (which top/bottom side that is different for
the two decorations). And finally if the legend's plate of
glass is on top of the barscale's one, you'll only be able to
drag the top bit of glass around, so to move the one below you
have to move the top one out of the way, then move the bottom
one, then move the top one back again. A well developed sense
of spatial relations helps your imagination get it right..
The current mechanism needs to be replaced, I'm pretty sure
there's a ticket open for this one too.


> For the vector material, I don't have anything for
> spearfish, but you can find some examples that produce
> nice maps for nc data set using d.vect.thematic

note that most of the functionality of d.vect.thematic has
been moved into d.vect now, so d.vect.thematic can become
a whole lot simpler and just focus on the legendy things now.

> at the end og this page (including the GUI instrcutions)
> http://courses.ncsu.edu/mea582/common/GIS_anal_grass/GIS_Anal_grvisual.html
> 
> and then some database stuff here (not really cleaned up)
> http://courses.ncsu.edu/mea792/common/Assign_GISamodel/Vect_GISamodel.html

any volunteers? :)


> P.S. We have had discussion already, but talking about scale
> would it be possible to change meters to m for the scale in
> future releases -

:-/

> it looks funny written in full given that kilometers are km

but you don't see both at the same time.

> (and it also makes scale too long). 

you're talking about d.barscale, yes?

> Given that mi should be used for miles
> (see wiki - the National Institute of Standards and
> Technology uses and recommends mi),
> there shouldn't be any confusion that m is meters.

Given any chance of confusion I'd rather spell out the full
word. The IHO board which sets out the rendering rules for
global nautical charts also uses "M" (upper case) for nautical
miles. And merchant marine people trained in that method I've
come across have a complete mental block of thinking of it in
any other meaning. Then the SI-purists get in to objections
of "nm" for nautical miles regardless of obvious non-nanometer
context, and it all just does my head in.. it's an infinite
debate with no right answer. So I just spell everything out
whenever possible -- to me the most important thing to pursue is
clarity of meaning, not strict adherence to conflicting
abbreviation standards.  (my 2c on that subject)


two small issues I noticed along the way:

* the wx barscale overlay did not automatically tick the "show"
box the first time I ran it on a fresh install.

* g.mkfontcap will write to e.g. ~/.gfontcap (as suggested by the
man page), but that is not able to be used by d.font or anything
else? Only work-around is to make the system's $GISBASE/etc
/fontcap file globally writiable or have the admin pre-seed it
somehow? (not so good on a managed system)


thanks,
Hamish