[GRASSGUI] Re: managing layer and properties

[Michael Barton]

On 3/19/07 7:04 PM, "Glynn Clements" <glynn at gclements.plus.com> wrote:

> 
> Daniel Calvelo wrote:
> 
>>> In terms of the most effective use of our time, I'd propose the following.
>>> Why don't we start with using the existing autogenerated gui panels--and
>>> upgrading menuform to make it nice (use select.Select for maps and other gis
>>> elements, add notebook tabs and icons like in the TclTk GUI, etc). The
>>> latter needs doing anyway. Taking this route first, I think that we could be
>>> up and running very quickly with a full-featured wxGRASS in short order. The
>>> sooner we have something that is 80%+ useable, the sooner we can have
>>> widespread testing, and maybe get some additional help in writing the
>>> separate modules for georeferencing, profiling, and the like.
>> 
>> I've started looking into this. So far, it does seem easy to get a
>> gis.m-like interface. As Glynn pointed out, it remains to be seen
>> whether the current expressive power of --interface-description is
>> enough for correct user experience.
> 
> We can guarantee that it isn't enough for "ideal" user performance;
> there currently isn't any way for the module to provide enough
> information for that.
> 
> One problem is that the data types are far too limited; there are too
> many cases where an option's type is just "string", with no further
> qualification, because none of the other alternatives allow for all of
> the acceptable values.
> 
> Another problem is that there is no way to indicate relationships
> between options. Either an option is required or it isn't; there is no
> way to indicate that you have to specify one option or another. In
> this case, you just have to mark all options as "not required" then
> have the code perform the checks. Similarly, you can't specify that
> certain options are mutually exclusive, or that certain options have
> to be used together.

These are some of the reasons that I favor more custom-designed
options/properties panels for displaying maps in the long run. However, we
can also ensure that these same panels pop up if you type d.rast or d.vect
from the command line.

Michael


__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton