[Live-demo] Openlayers looking very amateur on OSGeo-Live DVD

[christopher.schmidt at nokia.com]

On Jul 25, 2010, at 5:30 PM, ext Cameron Shorter wrote:

> I'm very concerned about the unprofessional impression left by the 
> Openlayers installation on the OSGeo-Live DVD when compared with the 
> other packages.

For the record, approaching the developers list this way was not the
ideal way to do it. This is the first time I've been aware that OpenLayers
is included on the live disc, and being told "Your software looks 
unprofessional because you didn't step up" is not the ideal way to achieve
your goal, if your goal is to get previously uninvolved developers to
contribute. 


> In particular:
> * We don't have a 1 page overview doc, written in RST format - which is 
> converted into very professional output. How to write it is written here:
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Add_Project#Application_Overview

You do now. 

> * Ideally, we'd also have a Quick Start written too. (Although this is 
> not mandatory this time around)
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Add_Project#Application_Quick_Start
> 
> * I don't think we have an Openlayers icon which opens up the Openlayers 
> example yet, which would require some tweaking of the bash install script.

I do not think this is a good plan. OpenLayers examples, in and of 
themselves, have limited value to new users. Having this available for 
developers or workshops is one thing, but I don't think that the examples
provide a sufficiently high quality new user experience to be included 
on the desktop of something that is oriented at users, as I understand
this to be.

> * I think Openlayers still needs the CD to be connected to the internet 
> to show basemaps, rather than working effectively offline.

I'm likely to fix this problem more generally in the next couple weeks,
but fixing the examples at the moment requires modifying 158 files 
individually, and I don't think this is the right time to fix the 
problem. The quickstart guide should hopefully provide users who want
to get started with OpenLayers without an internet connection the ability
to see it working without internet connectivity.

-- Chris