[Qgis-developer] In with the new, out with the old?

[Carson Farmer]

> I find your solution more intuitive for newbies, and I would like to
> keep it, at least for now. Can calculator extract x and y from points?
No it can't, and perimeter calculation seems to be an issue as well.
Ok, well then I might change this to be a wrapper around the field
calculator, that way it will be intuitive for beginners, and still
have the added functionality of x and y values and perimeter.
>> - Export to new projection (this can now be achieved by "Sav[ing] a
>> layer as...")
>
> Agreed.
Ok, I will remove this tonight
>> - Join attributes (this was never really meant as a 'solution', but
>> rather a temporary 'hack' to allow for table joints, but it is slow
>> and combersome, and requires the creation of a new field, whereas the
>> new join capabilities are excellent, fast, and excellent!)
>
> Agreed.
This one I will not be sad to see gone from fTools! Good riddance ;-)
>> - fTools information (nobody needs to know what fTools is anymore, and
>> frankly, this info should really be part of the help system and
>> documentation... also, I think this dialog often interferes with
>> help/about on macs?)
>
> It is a piece of history, and it is nice to give credits to your work,
> but it is true that now it seems a bit out of place.
I'll just move all the 'credit' related info to where it belongs in
the main QGIS about dialog I think. I don't like how it looks the way
it is now, and for the most part, fTools is now referred to as the
Vector menu, so beginners probably don't even know what fTools is....
>
>> - Select by location (I think there is a 'Spatial Query' plugin which
>> has this functionality plus much more, and appears to be quite fast)
>
> Right, even though the spatial query is more complex to use.
Hmm, yes I tested it just now. It is a bit more complicated, but not
overly so... thoughts from others?

>> - Define current projection (Is this covered by the new 'Set CRS of
>> Layer(s)' tool? I haven't had much of a play with this one yet, but it
>> sounds like it should, and is more convenient being part of the main
>> GUI)
>
> AFAIK, the properties define a projection at runtime, whereas your tool
> actually writes a prj file. Am I wrong?
True, it does write the prj file, but I'm talking about the new
feature from recent builds... the tool doesn't have an icon yet... am
I crazy?
>
> BTW, I think now fTools could often avoid writing new shapefiles, just
> adding the new info on the existing layer instead (e.g. points in
> polygons, etc.).
> Would this be hard?
Not overly hard no, and there are really only a few tools that this
would apply to.

One thing I'd really like to do is add the capability to output other
formats besides shapefiles (I'm not a big shapefile fan these days,
field name limitations are a hassle). I might try move over the
geometry and geoprocessing tools first, as they seem to be the most
frequently used tools.

Carson


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