[GRASS-dev] [GRASS GIS] #3474: Change the GRASS GIS start up to more beginner friendly

[GRASS GIS]

#3474: Change the GRASS GIS start up to more beginner friendly
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  Reporter:  hellik       |      Owner:  grass-dev@…
      Type:  enhancement  |     Status:  new
  Priority:  critical     |  Milestone:  8.0.0
 Component:  Startup      |    Version:  svn-trunk
Resolution:               |   Keywords:  wxGUI, startup
       CPU:  All          |   Platform:  All
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Comment (by cmbarton):

 Replying to [comment:1 veroandreo]:
 > Thanks Helli for opening this ticket and hopefully triggering some
 discussion on this matter. We already discussed about it in the autumn
 2017 community sprint
 (https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Talk:GRASS_GIS_Community_Sprint_Autumn_2017).
 >
 > Just to illustrate, here are some statistics about the GCI "Install
 GRASS GIS and download NC dataset" beginner task:
 >
 > As of today (02/01/18), there are 8 students working on this task and 17
 have completed the task so far.
 >
 > However, 24 students have abandoned the task and 15 ran out of time
 (they had 3 days to complete it). From these students, we get comments
 such as:
 > - "once i open the grass gis console...it opens another application
 called layer manager"
 > - "why is it so hard to do this?"
 > - "I don't know how to add dataset of north carolina ...what to do next?
 how to add map of north carolina"
 > - "how do you open it after you extracted it"
 > - "I've downloaded the software and also the data base, but the map
 doesn't seem to open in app, I'm kind of stuck here"
 > - "However, I can't seem to be able to see anything upon opening it. The
 UI opens fine, but I can't see a map or anything after selecting the North
 Carolina dataset."
 >
 > Of course, some might reflect a lack of understanding of a GIS, but they
 are doing pretty well in OSGeo tasks and such comments I have heard not
 only from high school students. IMHO, to make GRASS GIS easier for new-
 comers and first-time users is really beneficial for us, we cannot get
 more users and future developers if they feel it is that hard to display a
 map.

 I've taught quite a few beginning GIS classes with GRASS now. I've also
 done some short training sessions with QGIS. Most (all?) of the comments
 above would apply equally to QGIS.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3474#comment:4>
GRASS GIS <https://grass.osgeo.org>