[Qgis-community-team] How do I do that on QGIS?

[custard]

Hi Alister,

----- "Alister Hood" <alister.hood at synergine.com> wrote:
> Hi Ramon,
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: qgis-community-team-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
> [mailto:qgis-community-team-
> > bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Ramon Andinach
> > Sent: Tuesday, 22 March 2011 12:20 a.m.
> > To: Qgis-community-team at lists.osgeo.org
> > Subject: Re: [Qgis-community-team] How do I do that on QGIS?
> > 
> > Right here goes.
> > 
> > The "How do I do that in QGIS?" is now up on the wiki.
> > 
> > It can be reached from the Users Corner, in the HowTos section
> > (http://www.qgis.org/wiki/Users_Corner#HowTos).
> > 
> > It can be reached directly here:
> > http://www.qgis.org/wiki/How_do_I_do_that_in_QGIS
> > 
> > My intention was to keep it as a direct section for section
> equivalent
> for the
> > "How do I do that in ArcGIS/Manifold?" document, but I can see a
> suggestion,
> > and it's a good one, so maybe we shouldn't feel constrained by that
> too much.
> > Thoughts?
> 
> Personally I think it would be good to keep the structure in line
> with the
> ArcGIS/Manifold document so that they can be compared easily.  As
> well as
> potentially helping users coming from or going to ArcGIS or Manifold,
> this could allow users to easily identify:
> 1) "classic GIS tasks" that aren't yet included in "How do I do that
> in QGIS?", so they can write them up.  (let's build on the work that has
> already been done by others, instead of trying to come up with a new list of
> essential GIS tasks)
> 2) functionality that is available in ArcGIS or Manifold but not
> (yet)
> in
> QGIS.  (e.g. for the "sorting tabular data" task, it is not currently
> possible in QGIS to sort by multiple columns)

I'm glad you say that - it means I didn't miss something obvious.
 
> Even if the structure is kept in line with the ArcGIS/Manifold
> document, we
> can still add additional tasks.  I'd suggest restricting it to
> similar "classic GIS tasks", rather than including tutorials for 
> anything and everything - those would be better in a separate list.
> If you'd like, I can add a short paragraph defining "classic GIS
> tasks" and
> explaining the history of the list, so it is clear what the page is
> about without having to read the ArGIS/Manifold document.

Yes please. I'd quite appreciate that.

> I suggest we:
> - add all the tasks from the ArcGIS/Manifold document to the list
> now, even though we haven't written them up for QGIS

I quite agree with this.

> - indicate whether each task was included in the ArcGIS/Manifold
> document.
> One way of doing this would be to use a table format and have a
> column
> for it.
> 
> - when writing up tasks, indicate "missing" functionality (see (2)
> above)

What's sitting in my head this morning/late last night is something like:
1. Under the HowTos heading a page that links directly to to little descriptions of purely what's in the ArcGIS/Manifold document. This would allow a rapid and direct comparison. 

2. Also under the HowTos heading a page that has links out to all classic tasks (including the ones in the ArcGIS/Manifold document). This then would be a place for Deleting columns from Tables. This could be broken up into relatively obvious sections (as a default I'd probably use those in the How do I document)

   This is something where a tablular format would be helpful, and as a start I'd probably be thinking of something like:
Title : Classic Task? : ArcGis/Manifold? : Status
Adding a column : Y : Y : Complete.
Deleting a column : Y : N : Plug-in required.
Sorting a table : Y : Y : Partial. Can only sort by one column.

(Sounds like work, but once 1. was done, could probably cut, paste and modify to get 2. Then the ArcGIS/Manifold tasks in both pages link to the same place.)

I suppose I'm thinking that the tasks in the ArcGIS/Manifold document as a subset of things that you need to get around in QGIS. However, it is clearly useful for comparision to be able to view them as a unit for more rapid comparision.

I suspect that this format works best for quick-reference type notes, and that longer tutorial type things should go in a third section under HowTos or even in their own section.

That probably confuses things enough and I should get back to work.

-ramon.