[Qgis-developer] new symbology terminology

[Carson Farmer]

Martin,

> The categorized renderer is intended to be a renderer for discrete
> values - categories - where the values do not refer to quantities.
> Categorized symbol renderer has basically the same semantics the
> Unique symbol renderer from old symbology. I'm not an experienced
> cartographer and I've started to use the 'Categorized' name, because
> I've found it more intuitive than 'Unique symbol' renderer - but I'm
> not a native speaker and I can be wrong.
Now that you've explained it, I see your logic, though I still think
that it is perhaps not intuitive. While the categorised renderer
expects categorised data, it does not categorise the data itself, and
I think this is where the confusion lies for me. You are naming the
renderers based on the expected input data, and I am expecting the
renderers to be named based on what they do (which might not be the
best way to think!). I have just had a look at what some other
proprietary GIS do, and in fact what you have is probably closer to
what they have, so I may be wrong. However, to clear things up, it
might be nice to label the renders as 'Discrete data renderer' and
'Continuous data renderer'...?
>
> However, what leads you to think that categorized renderer is set up
> for continuous ranges of values? Is it the possibility to apply
> graduated color ramps?
Yes, probably...


-- 
Carson J. Q. Farmer
ISSP Doctoral Fellow
National Centre for Geocomputation
National University of Ireland, Maynooth,
http://www.carsonfarmer.com/