[Qgis-user] Ecological toolbox for QGIS - collecting ideas

[Rainer M Krug]

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 6:52 AM, Dr. F. Patrick Graz <fgraz at unam.na> wrote:
> Hi all,
> I just had a quick look at the hyperlinks that were provided by the original
> posting. The collections seem quite useful. Many of these are, however,
> already included in QGIS e.g. in the ftools or the home range manager.
>
> While an ecological toolbox would be quite a useful thing, it can also lead
> to some confusions / errors. For instance, using another GIS package I
> obtained different results from two different buffering pluggins. So which
> one is correct? Also remember, that ArcGIS was (apparently) originally
> produced because Arc/INFO (7.x) and ArcView 3.2 produced different outcomes
> in calculations.
>
> I would suggest as an alternative that a set of "how to's" is produced
> (maybe in conjunction with the qgis web-site) that shows how the different
> analysis tasks are carried out. This way we a) increase the utility of the
> exiting pluggins is enhanced and b) if there are errors in a pluggin they
> are more readily identified.


You are raising good points - but I think with an howto, the problem
is not solved for ecologists. I am an ecologist myself, so I am
allowed to say that most of the ecologists I know would like to have
one menu which gives them all routines for an analysis, without having
to read through an howto, install several plugins, dig into different
menus, ...

But to avoid duplication, these already implemented routines should
definitely not be re-implemented in a new plugin.

But: I am not familiar with the plugin structure, but is it possible
to create dependencies? I.e. my suggestion would then be tio have one
"Ecological Toolbox" plugin, which consists of analysis methods not
implemented already, plus is dependent (i.e. loads, installs, ...)
several other plugins which contain ecological analysis methods. All
these methods (internal and in other packages) are then all displayed
under one menu "Ecological toolbox".

This would avoid duplication and bring many different ecological
methods in one menu.

By the way: this approach could be used for creating other Toolboxes /
Metaplugins which simply install other plugins and create menues in
which these are grouped under one topic.

Cheers,

Rainer

>
> Regards,
>
> Patrick
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Dr. F. Patrick Graz
> Snr. Researcher,
> Multidisciplinary Research Centre,
> University of Namibia
>
>
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