[GRASSLIST:9018] Re: ArcView vs GRASS

[Rich Shepard]

On Fri, 11 Nov 2005, Trevor Wiens wrote:

> The common reply to this is that ArcView runs better under Windows and is
> easier to use, so it is worth it to buy a license and have no control over
> your software. To this, I would suggest that the appropriate counter is
> that if users want Windows integration and ease of use, they should buy
> Manifold GIS, for 1/10 the cost of ArcView and is considerably more
> powerful than the base ArcView product.

   If I may be permitted peripheral comments again, I have two to offer.

   I first learned of GIS in 1987 when we used it at the state agency where I
was a technical program manager. I quickly learned that most people wanted
pretty maps, not deep technical analyses. I think that's still the case in
many situations: make the map sufficiently visually attractive and no one
questions the quality of the data.

   One problem with "ease of use" is the emphasis on the wrong aspect. When I
was more heavily involved with GIS than I am now (my current business focus
being on the application of approximate reasoning models to environmental
issues), I found too many people who "knew" GIS because they knew how to
operate the program controls. My response was that teaching someone how to
use a word processor did not make her a writer; teaching someone how to use a
graphics program does not make him an artist. There's a huge difference
between knowing how to do things with a computer application and knowing what
to do to get the proper results. I've seen this mis-match with a lot of folks
who do multiple T-tests rather than ANOVA on their data because they don't
understand statistics, but they have a computer application that "does"
statistics for them.

   Your analogy is very pertinent: understand what you're doing before you use
a tool that takes away the tedium of calculation.

Carpe weekend,

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |   Author of "Quantifying Environmental
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)   |  Impact Assessments Using Fuzzy Logic"
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>     Voice: 503-667-4517         Fax: 503-667-8863