[GRASS-user] WxGUI issues: refresh and labels

[Hamish]

Richard:
> > First - Micha, thank you! I didn't even know there was
> > another box to check.

it's a bit hidden in the wxGUI, but visible in the 1st tab + main
controls in the Tcl/Tk GUI(s).

Micha wrote:
> I'd like to raise the question (again) regarding displaying
> vector labels in wxGUI and the need to check the "attr"
> checkbox in the "Optional" tab.

Two things to keep clear here- fancy labels created by v.labels and
simple attribute text drawn with d.vect.

> The d.vect command requires specifying both the attrcol=xxx
> and the display=shape,attr parameters. In parallel to that,
> the wxGUI window for displaying a vector requires in the
> "Labels" tab to select the labels column, *and* in the
> "Optional" tab to check the attr checkbox.
...
> the above GUI arrangement is just not intuitive.  I'm sure Richard
> won't be the last user to get caught by this.

I agree.
In trunk this is already "solved" in the wxGUI by moving the display=
option to the Required tab. In this case it is plausible that the
display= option must be set to something, but in general for other
modules you might want an option on the first tab but not have it be
strictly required on the command line. a proposed compromise is given
in trac ticket #886.   https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/886


> Is it not possible to add the display=attr checkbox to the
> "Labels" tab, so that you do all labeling actions - enable
> labeling, choose the column along with label fonts, colors
> etc - in the *same* place?? Perhaps even leave the "Name of
> column", "Label color", etc all greyed out unless the Enable
> labeling (i.e disp=attr) is checked...

That would require us to create (and maintain) a new custom GUI for
drawing vector maps. I hope that moving display= to the first tab
in the wxGUI (using whichever method to get there) removes some of the
need to move away from the zero-maintenance automatic GUI we have now.

I wouldn't mind 4 wrapper scripts for displaying points, lines, areas,
and text; and then a fifth button for the full d.vect options, but I
defer to the better judgment of the more GUI-minded devs on that.



Hamish