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

[Michael Barton]

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On Feb 2, 2015, at 2:31 PM, Vaclav Petras <wenzeslaus at gmail.com<mailto:wenzeslaus at gmail.com>> wrote:


On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 2:09 PM, Michael Barton <Michael.Barton at asu.edu<mailto:Michael.Barton at asu.edu>> wrote:
To make this more compact, there is still extraneous information not needed below the location and mapset windows.

I don't think we have a consensus of what is the information needed. Shortest is no info but that's not ideal neither. Perhaps we should use word database rather then directory as a primary term, so users actually realize that it is something special.

gisdbase = database
location = 'subdatabase' (it also seems like a database)
mapset = namespace

I think that the right information is currently in the directions. But if we want to make it shorter, there are some things that could be removed with no loss. A Location could be used for a project but also might not. So that sentence could be left out, for example.


Also, error messages should be in popup error windows, not displayed on the main dialog.

We are trying to do the start of GRASS more friendly. As I already described, in 6.4 (and old 7) if you start GRASS and
1) the gisdbase is empty or
2) the gisdbase does not exist (after moving the grassdata dir or *during* manual editing of the field) or
3) you are starting GRASS for the first time (i.e. you had no rc file, try with mv ~/.grass7/rc ~/.grass7/rc.backup)
you get an error dialog. These are the states which beginner is likely to get. Popping up error dialogs are really unfriendly and warm welcome in command line with recommendation to get a "current catalog of available computer maps" will not really fix it. Moreover, the error dialogs are annoying for an advanced user too when all one needs to do it just to change one value.

These error messages as a part of the window is a modern/current technique how to deal with different errors and warnings which would soon overwhelm user. Another advantage is that user can read the error message again and again until the problem is solved. The need to press OK in error dialog is just extra step which you have to do and the result is that everybody is just pressing OK without reading the message and then the user doesn't know what was the problem.

1) and 2) were already fixed in r57549. 3) fixed in r64405 was a bit special because after pressing OK, you got browse dialog for gisdbase without knowing what it is and what is the relation with the other things (loc, mapset, data).

If there is no error message, the vertical space is used by Location and Mapset lists. (Before one line was still there but the error message had to be one line too).

The example message is great. You can specify what message is displayed in a popup, just like specifying it on the main screen. The only difference is that it does not take up space on the main dialog—especially if there are no errors. I don’t see a popup error message as being any less friendly than red text on the main dialog. But maybe others do.

Also, I’ve never had a problem with the size of the startup dialog. But you and others have mentioned it. So I’m trying to thing of ways to streamline it.



We need long enough descriptions and we need the error messages. If there is something extra, it is the banner and a little bit of Location and Mapset lists which are now higher than before (even with an error message). Look at the attached image and tell me if I should make the Location and Mapset smaller (I hope it will be possible do implement).

Unfortunately the screenshots are too low resolution for me to read them here. So I might miss something that is on the screenshot.

Michael


http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/57549/grass/trunk/gui/wxpython/gis_set.py
http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/64405/grass/trunk/gui/wxpython/gis_set.py
<startup_warning_64_7error_7ok.png>

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