[Live-demo] Add all installed application to the menu at the top of the desktop.

[Hamish]

Alex wrote:
> Looking at it some more I'm not sure we've done a very good
> job of sorting the icons either.

I did it as a first pass; refinement is most welcome.

It is easy to make adjustments- in the install_desktop.sh script
add/remove names to these lines:

DESKTOP_APPS="grass qgis gvsig openjump uDig ossimplanet Kosmo_2.0_RC1"
NAV_APPS="MapFish marble gpsdrive opencpn mapnik-* josm gosmore"
SERVER_APPS="deegree-* geoserver-* *geonetwork geomajas-* mapserver"
GEO_TOOLS="maptiler imagelinker r spatialite-* geokettle"

(names based on $APP.desktop files in the ~/Desktop/ dir; technically
they should be based on the debian package name they belong to, but
whatever)

entire new menus require a new *.menu file.


n.b. I tried to do this from the end-user's perspective and not from
the developer's perspective. i.e. categorize by what it does, not by
how it works. Many smart conference goers and lab students will have no
idea what client/server means; their field of expertize is geo-*, not
comp.sci.


> The GeoTools folder (Maybe Utilities instead of Tools), not sure that
> one makes sense.

shrug. For an example of my intention, if gdal-bin and proj-bin apps had
desktop icons this is the category I'd put them in.


> R should be in the Desktop folder anyways.

I purposely called it "Desktop GIS" and not simply "Desktop" as for the
user "Desktop" means $HOME or ~/Desktop. It was not my intention to have
"Desktop GIS" include "Desktop Apps", which is way too wide.

R is not a desktop GIS, it is a modeling system. and so it ended up in
geo tools.


Along similar lines I strongly wonder if we should rename "Servers" as
"Web Services"?


> As for how to decide when something is Navigation and Maps seems
> fuzzy too.

most apps will have some overlap and sticking them in any category will
be a compromise. I'm not too worried about it and will happily go along
with whatever a project likes to identify themselves as.

As far as maps & nav- marble, gpsdrive, opencpn, gosmore all fit into
this category distinct from Desktop GIS. For the most part they are
(primarily) read-only data viewers which can optionally hook up to a GPS
for real-time "where am I now?" nav.


> Mapfish is definitely a Server,

the back-end runs as a server, but AFAIU the user-exposed end is a
maps.google.com or OSM tiles-at-home like experience.  shrug


> and the OSM editors seem to fall into a weird in between land.

AFAIK gosmore is a reader, josm is the editor. maps & nav is what they
do, so close enough IMO.


> I'm also thinking about another folder: Databases with
> PGAdmin/Postgis icon(doesn't exist) and the Spatialite GUI.

if you like. I'm not familiar with the dedicated spatialite GUI, but
do include "sqlitebrowser" on the list as well.

 
> Other things to sort(I'll start doing some assuming I can
> figure it out):

the most important step is to have the install_<program>.sh script add
an <program>.desktop icon to ~/Desktop.

then just add the program name to the enviro variable lists above and
the rest should be automatic.


> Desktop:
>  Spatialite GIS

what does it do? is it the same as OpenJUMP, uDig, QGIS, GRASS?

> Servers:
>  Geoserver Start/Stop/Admin/Documentation
>  Geomajas
>  Deegree Start/Stop
>  GeoKettle

those were earmarked but skipped due to a wildcard bug; should be fixed
now. I missed GeoKettle but now it is added to Geo Tools. (again I
classed it by what it seemed to do, not how it ran, but feel free to
improve as you see fit)

> Navigation and Maps:
>  Mapnik? - or is that a Server in this case.

I'd consider it a tool and not a web service, but whatever.



Hamish