[Qgis-developer] organizing plugins

[Andreas Neumann]

> I'd like to throw in my $0.02 worth. One of the attractions of QGIS
> compared to most other offerings (both proprietary and OSS) is its ease
> of use for experts as well as first timers. And all the fancier
> operations are accessible thru plugins.
>
> I wouldn't want the core interface to be stuffed full of additional
> menus and buttons. But when activating a plugin I do expect the new
> functionality to appear as a new menu - just like it works now.  In
> other words, I'd prefer that most plugins do *not* become part of the
> core application.

Micha,

I don't fully agree with you. I think at least one third of the plugins
should be moved into the core. Don't you think that a standard GIS should
offer:

* advanced labelling
* file format conversions
* geoprocessing
* raster operations (resampling, merging, reclassification, etc.)
* importing text files
* simple CAD functionality
* georeferencing
* dxf reading/conversion
* WFS support
* GPS support
* simple DEM calculations (aspect, slope, shading, curvature, etc.)

out of the box without having to search for a plugin at various
distributed resources?

I don't regard the above functionality as "obscure" or "rarely used". I
think they should belong to any GIS "out of the box" without having to
search for and enable plugins first hand.

I agree though, that some advanced analysis plugins, or specialized
environments, such as OSM, etc. could be handled by separate plugins.

Andreas

-- 
Andreas Neumann
http://www.carto.net/neumann/
http://www.svgopen.org/