[GRASS-dev] [GRASS GIS] #2304: Problems with add category to all features workflow

[GRASS GIS]

#2304: Problems with add category to all features workflow
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 Reporter:  wenzeslaus          |       Owner:  grass-dev@…              
     Type:  defect              |      Status:  new                      
 Priority:  normal              |   Milestone:  7.1.0                    
Component:  Default             |     Version:  unspecified              
 Keywords:  v.edit, v.category  |    Platform:  Unspecified              
      Cpu:  Unspecified         |  
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Comment(by wenzeslaus):

 Since it was unclear to me what are the actual problems and how
 complicated they are, I was not able to fill separate tickets. I'm for
 closing this ticket as soon as every issue listed here is individually
 addressed, e.g. by reporting new ticket or by declaring it as not an
 issue.

 Summary update follows.

 Reported separately:

  * it is not clear how to select all features in `v.edit`
   * there is the `-r` trick but it is not clear if it it supported
   * it is possible to get bbox and pass it (comment:2), this seems
 inconvenient to me
   * perhaps `-a` (Select all) flag to explicitly select all would be good
   * feature request #2309

 Resolved:

  * `v.edit` builds topology when there is nothing to edit
   * seems to be fixed by recent r60392
  * `v.edit` breaks the topology/spatial index when the selection of
 features was empty, ends with assert sometimes
   * whatever it was, it is hidden/disabled by r60392
  * `v.category` does nothing for `option=add`; using `option=sum under`
 the same conditions gives a result if there is something else to add, it
 is not in the example in manual
   * the issue with `option=add` is just unclear documentation
   * fixed by r60432 and others

 Unresolved:

  * some parameters/options in `v.edit` have guisection Selection but they
 can be used also as an input
  * there is a space after map name in `v.what` output
  * `v.category` has a parameter/option option while `v.edit` has a
 parameter tool
  * `v.category` builds topology when there was no change
  * `v.category` does nothing for `option=step`; using `option=sum` under
 the same conditions gives a result if there is something else to add, it
 is not in the example in manual
  * v.category says 0 features modified. when it finished report or print
 but it seems redundant I wouldn't expect something else when using report
 or print and not providing output
  * in GUI query tool, you will see that it shows only one layer and one
 category
   * now I see that layers are there but they are represented as separate
 maps which is not what I would expect since (layers are "inside" the map);
 I missed that before because I was querying more than one map and I
 considered the other (folded) row as one of the other maps
   * this needs separate ticket
   * underlying `vector_what(map="...", coord=...)` and `v.what` works but
 maybe the output is hard to work with (applies especially to `vector_what`
 function)

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/2304#comment:5>
GRASS GIS <http://grass.osgeo.org>