[Qgis-developer] GRASS GUI Ideas (was Re: excuse for update troubles)

[Tim Sutton]

Hi

Most of the changes you mention are things I had in mind with :

"The rest of the grass tools would remain unchanged for now (though I
do have some other ideas for further improvements to the toolbox ui
that I will bring up later)."

I dont have a lot of spare time so I prefer to do small incremental
changes instead of trying to make a big overhaul. Also if we do
incremental improvements it will be  easier to ensure no new bugs are
introduced.

The only change you suggest that I dont really agree with is the top
level heirachy as buttons, since I think my way is neater :-)
Especially when combined with a simple filter that lets you type inthe
first couple of chars of the module you are looking for.

Regards

Tim

2007/11/22, Benjamin Ducke <benjamin.ducke at ufg.uni-kiel.de>:
> Dear all,
>
> I agree that some fresh ideas are needed to improve GRASS usability.
>
> Some very tiny changes could improve usability a lot:
>
> 1. Make a GUI entry for starting the GRASS shell right in the main
> menubar of the plugin + add an icon for the same purpose in the
> plugin's icon bar. This way, it's easier to quickly hack in a few
> GRASS commands w/o having to first load that heavy toolbox.
>
> 2. Move the data browser window out of the toolbox and into its
> own window (perhaps also add a menu entry for it in the plugin's
> menubar). It's confusing to have the browser and the module interfaces
> in one over-loaded window, I think.
>
> As a bigger change, I suggest taking the top level of the module
> tree hierarchy out of the tree and instead have nice big buttons
> on the left side of the toolbox to switch between top-level categories
> (such as "Import", "Export" etc.) -- the way Mac OS uses them, e.g.
> in the Finder file windows.
>
> I think it would also be better to have each module start in its own
> window instead of inside the GRASS Tools window. This way, the user's
> window manager can take care of organizing all the open module windows
> much better and more flexibly than can be done in a single, tabbed
> window.
>
> Another benefit of this would be that we could get rid of the
> top level tabs in the GRASS Tools window. I find it very confusing
> to have two lines of tabs in one window - "Modules", "Browser" and
> all the open modules on one row and individual module tabs
> "Options", "Output" and "Manual" on another.
>
> Best,
>
> Benjamin
>
>
>
> Tim Sutton wrote:
> > Hi Leonardo
> >
> > No problem keep up the great work! If you are unsure of anything, just
> > ask first here on the list. I had a look through the grass toolbox and
> > the list of supported GRASS functions is looking very impressive so
> > well done for all that work.
> >
> > By the way I put together CODING document in (svn trunk top level of
> > qgis checkout) that newly granted committers should probably have a
> > read though.
> >
> > Grass Notes:
> > --------------------------
> >
> > Before we release 1.0 I would like to make some changes to that
> > toolbox to add a category and filter box something like this
> > screenshot.
> >
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/timlinux/2054596971/
> >
> > The mockup list entries themselves would like more like the entries in
> > this screenshot from kde:
> >
> > http://www.kde.org/announcements/visual_guide_images-3.5/kicker-applets.png
> >
> > In other words it would be like my mockup but each tool entry would
> > have its icon on left, the tool title in bold and then the brief
> > description underneath. The toolbox would have an 'all' category where
> > all modules would be visible and then other categories in common with
> > the current nodes in the GRASS toolbox tree.
> >
> > The rest of the grass tools would remain unchanged for now (though I
> > do have some other ideas for further improvements to the toolbox ui
> > that I will bring up later).
> >
> > What do people think?
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> > Tim
> >
> >
> > 2007/11/22, lami at faunalia.it <lami at faunalia.it>:
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> I have seen that I created some troubles with the update of GRASS
> >> modules and I'd like to excuse me for this. I was my first time in
> >> update and I did'nt know how to update all the files in one time.
> >>
> >> I hope I will be more careful next time....
> >>
> >> Sorry again
> >> Leonardo
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
> >
> >
>
> --
> Benjamin Ducke, M.A.
> Archäoinformatik
> (Archaeoinformation Science)
> Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte
> (Inst. of Prehistoric and Historic Archaeology)
> Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
> Johanna-Mestorf-Straße 2-6
> D 24098 Kiel
> Germany
>
> Tel.: ++49 (0)431 880-3378 / -3379
> Fax : ++49 (0)431 880-7300
> www.uni-kiel.de/ufg
>
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-- 
Tim Sutton
QGIS Project Steering Committee Member - Release  Manager
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