[GRASSLIST:9878] Announcing test version of GIS Manger 2

[Michael Barton]

I¹ve completed a major rewrite of the GRASS 6+ GIS Manager in TclTk. This is
the beginning phase of the development of a new and more up-to-date user
interface for GRASS, and comes out of a couple months of discussions on
interface design for GRASS and GIS.

I committed it to the CVS (It is currently in grass6/display/gis.m, but its
location and/or designation in the source tree may change. See subsequent
post to the developers list) and posted it to my website at
<http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton/files/grass_gismgr/gism20060117.tgz>

For many years (I don¹t know how many), GRASS has depended on X11 for
displaying maps and related visualization. In order for GRASS to move to a
new user interface, it has become apparent that one important step is to
eliminate the requirement (though perhaps not the option) of x11 displays
for visualization in GRASS. However, there is no incentive for modifying
GRASS C-modules to no longer require x11 displays if there is no alternative
way to visualize GIS data in GRASS.

To that end, I¹ve created a new GIS Manager 2 that no longer requires x11
for displays. Following advice of Glynn Clements, it uses the PNG driver and
TclTk canvases. This opens up many new possibilities for the GUI, while
providing an incentive to modify GRASS modules as needed for a GUI that goes
beyond x11. Trevor Wiens has completed the first of these: v.what can query
vectors based on xy coordinates, rather than requiring user interaction with
an x11 display. This also opens more options for scripting. v.what is
required for vector querying in the new GIS Manager 2.

I¹ve not been able to implement all of the draft UI specifications
(currently posted at <http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton/files/grass_ui>,
but soon to move to a new WIKI page created by Hamish Bowman). But, I¹ve
tried to implement some of them to improve the GRASS user experience. Here
is a brief summary of some of the changes.

-There is no limit to the number of map displays (i.e., TclTk canvases) that
can be opened. So you can make  your screen as cluttered as you like.

-Each map display has its own layer tree (i.e., list of GIS layers to
overlay and display) and region settings. So each map display will not
affect other map displays.

-Display controls‹like zoom, pan, and mouse query‹are conveniently located
on a toolbar at the top of each map display.

-Display controls are updated and (IMHO) easier to use.

-There is still a single GIS Manager window so that you don¹t need to have a
complete layer tree, option pane, and menu for each display open. The GIS
Manager window will change dynamically when you click on each map display to
show the layers and options for that display.

-The output pane has been split into a command console and output display.
The command console pane only displays GRASS commands issued by the GUI. In
a subsequent update, I hope that it will be possible to edit and highlight a
command, press run, and have the command issued to GRASS. The output window
has a save button that doesn¹t work yet, but I hope to implement this soon.

-Display output to file is now a button on the map display toolbar.

-With TclTk canvases, you can print  the display to postscript. Right now,
I¹ve only made a button that does a simple output to a *.eps file. However,
the existing print.tcl dialog could be rewritten to provide a variety of
postscript output options.

I was not able to implement a number of other discussed GUI design
features‹like tightly integrated 2D/3D visualization, tearoff toolbars,
docked and undocked map displays. These may be doable in TclTk or may
require a more robust GUI development platform like Qt or GTK+.
Nevertheless, I hope that this shows that GRASS can have a better interface
for the user, while maintaining its powerful command line and scripting
ability.

I and a few other people have tested this, but it is a significant enough
rewrite that I¹m sure that there are still bugs. Please report them to the
GRASS bug tracker and note that they are for GIS Manager 2 (or gism2 if you
prefer). Thanks especially to Glynn Clements, Trevor Wiens, Crischan Wygoda,
and Martin Wegmann for their help in getting this off the ground, and to
Radim Blazek who created the GRASS Display Manager, the first version of
what has become the GIS Manager for GRASS 6+.

Enjoy
Michael
______________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ  85287-2402
USA

voice: 480-965-6262; fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton

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