[GRASS-dev] Making start of GRASS GIS easier for newcomers

[Markus Metz]

On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 8:01 PM, Vaclav Petras <wenzeslaus at gmail.com> wrote:
> More improvements for startup window in r64405.
>
> Most notably you don't get error message when starting GRASS for the first
> time without a rc file. After clicking OK, you would get a browse window.
> Now you just get a warning text in the middle of the window and it is up to
> you to read it and press the button. In my opinion, much less annoying
> behavior.
>
> The descriptions are now in gray. This is system color, so it should work
> with different themes. (This is not true for the things like warning text or
> grayed out Mapsets)
>
> I changed the descriptions a little bit but it needs more care. Anybody can
> change it now but perhaps we should try to discuss them without diverging to
> how to do startup procedure differently. Also there is more strings, some
> messages, they might need some revision too. E.g. should there be numbers in
> the box titles? And what about the error messages?
>
> The windows issues are just partially fixed. It seems that wxPython is not
> determining the wrapping properly. The widgets have the same boundaries in
> widget inspector on MS Windows and on Linux. Just the text is wrapped
> differently.
>
> The vertical size is bigger then it was before (you can compare at an image
> posted earlier [2]). It will get smaller by using smaller banner image.
> However, longer descriptions and the error/warning text are making it
> bigger. Now the behavior of error/warning text is that it does not occupy
> any space unless something is shown. Hopefully it will work on all platforms
> (seems to work well on Linux and MS Windows). In theory, the window could be
> re-sized by user to be smaller (if screen is small) but I'm not able to make
> Location and Mapset lists to allow it. If I set minimal size, then they
> actually use it from the beginning and I get unnecessary small lists. We
> could get some vertical space by growing wider but then the Location and
> Mapset lists are unnecessary wide.
>

For newcomers/no rc file: how about creating a new GRASS GIS database
in $HOME, in there a new location with EPSG:4326 (latlong wgs84), the
empty PERMANENT mapset will be created automatically. Does not apply
to MS Windows, because the demolocation is created during
installation.

Why not having a minimal welcome screen with a dropdown list for
existing locations and a dropdown list for existing mapsets in the
selected location, plus a prominent OK button and a change/manage
button, nothing else?

It's the difference between

"You need to fill in this form first, and fix the errors in the form,
after that you may enter GRASS GIS"

and

"Welcome! Just press OK to enter GRASS GIS"

Markus M

> Vaclav
>
> [1] http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/64405
> [2]
> http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/attachments/20150121/62aad5af/attachment-0001.png
> http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/attachment/5183019/1/startup_with_explanations.png
>
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