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

[Nikos Alexandris]

On 22.01.2015 10:32, Helmut Kudrnovsky wrote:

>> > > I find the fact that GRASS does not provide a default
>> > > projection system, but forces the user to think about projection 
>> from the
>> > > start, one of its strengths, both for work and for teaching.

>    >> On of it strenghts, yes. But I have been teaching GRASS a lot 
> to GIS
>    >> professionals who got trained on different systems. And many 
> asked
>    >> "why this screen? why cannot you just start like the other 
> GIS"? And I
>    > >tend to agree (again: optionally). The point is that we, on the
>    > >contrary to many other GIS, still have all the control 
> mechanisms in
>    >> place which avoid that the user mixes projections. So that's 
> all fine.

>>And what will you do after 'just starting'? Do you have your data as 
>> LL? Or
> will you use -o flag to ignore
>>the projection check?

> I agree. I can't see any benefit to be automatically in a LL 
> location, as in
> many cases your data will be in other SRSs.

> what may be make sense: define your projection/srs by import your 
> first data
> and offer this option in a prominent way in the welcome screen and 
> not
> "hidden" in the location wizzard as at the moment.

+1

Nikos


> and what I've learned from GRASS GIS :-) when using other GIS 
> software:
> first check SRSs of my data, open GIS software, define SRS and then 
> load
> data.
>
> my 0.02c