[Qgis-developer] Sextante test drive

[Victor Olaya]

> * in Sextante options, General entry should always be the first, Modeler second, and
> Script third
> * the name of the settings is an editable field, which seems inappropriate
> * the Settings column should be wider, at the expense of the Value column;
> alternatively, text should be wrapped

I have been thinking about changing all the options dialog. Doesn't
look hard to do, so you can count on having this ready soon

> * when activating the new "Use categories to classify...", only a few algorithms are
> shown; I understand the need to simplify things, but I'm still unsure if it's
> appropriate to limit users' choice

It's limited now for two reasons:
   1) The classification of algorithms is done manually...and it is
boooooring to do :-) SAGA and QGIS ones are already done, but I have
to do the GRASS ones. However I am not sure about including GRASS, it
is more complex to use. You can use a SAGA algorithm without knowing
what SAGA is, but to use a GRASS one, you need to understand some
GRASS ideas, so it is an advanced process, and the simplified
algorithm classification shouldn't assume that. You can always change
to the advanced view to use GRASS (now you can change directly from
the toolbox, no need to go to the config dialog)
   2) I would like to have in that list, only those algorithms that
need no extra configuration, to make that the default and have it
working out-of the box. That's why R and OTB, for instance, are not in
there.

> * IMHO OTB is a big plus for Sextante, as it brings many brand new functions,
> unavailable in most other desktop GIS; so I suggest to:
>
>   * include OTB in the standalone win package (easy, as it is already in osgeo4w)
>   * add its default path according to the running distro; for users, adding it by
> hand can be difficult
>   * I noticed that the Mean shift segmentation produces a vector with the Y axis inverted

good idea. If OTB goes into osgeo4w, I could add the OTB algorithms to
the simplified list of algorithms

I still have to send Jurgen the SAGA package as we discussed it in the
Hackfest. We can put both SAGA and OTB, and taht would really give a
lot of power to SEXTANTE

Thanks for your ideas!