[Qgis-community-team] some report and questions on our QGIS training

[Tim Sutton]

Hi

On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 4:27 AM, maning sambale
<emmanuel.sambale at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Just want to give some feedback regarding the use of QGIS for a
> one-day training/workshop we gave last month.  The workshop was
> designed as an introduction to QGIS for beginner (new to FOSS-Geo and
> GIS in general).  We used QGIS-1.4.0-1-No-GrassSetup for the course.
> It covers the basic topics outlined below:
>   * displaying and navigating data,
>   * creating and editing data,
>   * vector geoprocessing and overlay analysis and,
>   * designing maps for printing.
>
> Overall, I believe the participants appreciated the power of GIS and
> QGIS as an additional tool within their respective organizations.
>
> Below are some feedback/request from the participants I hope devs can
> look into in the future (or perhaps this has been solved already):
>  * Install problems with Windows 7 and Vista - It seems QGIS cannot
> be installed to default Program Files(86) directory.   When using
> Vista and Win7 (using the QGIS-1.4.0-1-No-GrassSetup.exe), the install
> process ran and finishes, however, when we started the QGIS using the
> Desktop icon, no QGIS session was opened.  When we checked the the
> Program Files directory, no QGIS folder was created.  We had to create
> a QGIS directory in C:\ to install QGIS.  In Windows XP, installation
> worked as expected.


Did you try right clicking the installer and choosing 'run as
administrator'? Its some windows security thing I believe.

>    * Participants using small screen netbooks have difficulty using
> some of the QGIS application windows. For example, the field
> calculator window is not completely visible using a 10.5 inch LCD
> screen.

Yes we have been trying to make the dialogs work on small displays but
this quickly gets lost broken as new features are added so its an
ongoing pusuit.

>    * Saving file in a specified format does not append the file
> extensions.  This was observed in the Map/Print Composer.  Although a
> pdf filetype was activated, we had to create a complete filename with
> the extension (i.e "map.pdf" and not "map") in order to save the file
> with the extension.
>    * Feature requests for batch spatial index generation.   When
> loading multiple shapefiles, you need to open the Properties dialog to
> create shapefile index (qix) for each layer.  A nice plugin/feature
> would be to create qix for all active layers.
>
>
> Now for some questions.  Two useful materials I used was the QGIS 1.4
> user guide and "A Gentle Introduction to GIS" (T. Sutton, O. Dassau,
> M. Sutton) both materials are in GNU Free Documentation License.  In
> some cases, portions of text from the two materials are integrated
> into our exercise materials.  What aspects of the GFDL should I be
> complying with?  In my opinion, the exercises are covered under
> section 7 (Aggregation with Independent Works) of the license.
>

Without going back and re-reading the GFDL license, the general intent
was that derived works are released with the same license,
acknowledgement is maintained of the original authors and funders, and
that you make broad use of the resource to the general betterment of
humanity :-)


> Thanks again fro QGIS (couple with GRASS), I have been using it in
> almost all of our GIS needs and we see it as an appropriate app for
> advocating the use of FOSS-Geo in our country (PH).
>

Regards

Tim

>
>
> --
> cheers,
> maning
> ------------------------------------------------------
> "Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden
> wiki: http://esambale.wikispaces.com/
> blog: http://epsg4253.wordpress.com/
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>



-- 
Tim Sutton - QGIS Project Steering Committee Member (Release  Manager)
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