[GRASSGUI] qgis interface alike

[Michael Barton]

The rationale for the plugin architecture in QGIS is that is it
fundamentally a map display program, rather than a full-featured GIS. Using
the plugins is a way to embed analytical and map development capabilities
into QGIS while maintaining the basic architecture. However, to make this
work, you need to have QGIS and GRASS installed.

The way wxGRASS (and the TclTk) architecture works is to wrap all of GRASS
in a GUI, rather than build a GUI and then add in some GRASS. I'm not sure
what would be served by building a GUI wrapper for GRASS that only accesses
a limited part of the code base.

What might make more sense, in terms of flexibility, is to make selected
GRASS commands also available (i.e., beyond the complex menu hierarchy) via
a graphical 'tool box', as Trevor Wiens has suggested. Since trying to
create a tool box for all 300+ commands would result in an interface as
complicated as the menus themselves, maybe we could make a tool box that
lets users 'plug in' or remove different command groups (e.g., hydrology or
terrain). 

Michael


On 3/25/07 9:59 AM, "Daniel Calvelo" <dca.gis at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> The current wx-based development of a GRASS GUI follows the line of
> tcltkgrass, d.m, gis.m and provides graphical interactive access to
> the whole GRASS functionality.
> 
> The approach taken by Radim in the QGIS GRASS plugin is rather
> different: he provides full CLI access for advanced use on the one
> hand, and on the other he provides graphical shortcuts for common
> operations, needing a reduced set of parameters (the rest using either
> defaults or special values according to each "shortcut").
> 
> I was thinking about leveraging Radim's work, building a Python parser
> for his .qgm format, basically reusing qgis-grass plugin's module tree
> and providing this same "fast" commands for the wx-based interface.
> 
> But we're talking about different philosophies here. How do you think
> both could be merged in a way that wouldn't be unintuitive to a new
> GRASS user? Would separating the interface in "basic" and "advanced"
> functionality be desirable? Can the qgis plugin interface make sense
> as a  "quick toolbox" alongside the heavier wxgui? Would this
> integration be worthwhile from a user standpoint?
> 
> Daniel.

__________________________________________
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