Markus Metz <[email protected]> writes: > On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 11:15 PM, Vaclav Petras <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 4:55 PM, Markus Neteler <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 8:16 PM, Moritz Lennert >>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> > On 21/01/15 19:35, Markus Neteler wrote: >>> >> In my opinion we should not have the location selection dialog at all. >>> >> Revolution! >>> >> >>> >> We should start GRASS right away in latlong like most GIS in the world. >>> >> >>> >> Then let the user open the dialog to change projection if desired from >>> >> inside. >>> >> >>> >> This would avoid a lot of questions right away. >>> > >>> > Please don't do this ! >>> >>> OK, now being back from phone to a real keyboard, I can write a few more >>> lines. >>> >>> I am thinking about this issue for seeral years meanwhile (hint: I >>> started in 1993 to use the software, getting stuck at the text start >>> screen not having a manual :-). >>> >>> So my full suggestions are >>> - beautify the actual screen (hence my recent suggestion which is >>> lively discussed here), >>> - optionally (!) allow to start GRASS without welcome/loc/mapset >>> screen but to open it in LatLong as described above. Again, as an >>> option. We could implement that in trunk and see how it goes. All the >>> tools to select locations, projections and such are there. >>> >> I think that you have to go all the work anyway and the dummy location is >> there just to show that it is possible. >> >> There are some potential problems, for example how it works now with the >> .bash_history file? >> >>> > I find the fact that GRASS does not provide a default >>> > projection system, but forces the user to think about projection from >>> > the >>> > start, one of its strengths, both for work and for teaching. >>> >>> On of it strenghts, yes. But I have been teaching GRASS a lot to GIS >>> professionals who got trained on different systems. And many asked >>> "why this screen? why cannot you just start like the other GIS"? And I >>> tend to agree (again: optionally). The point is that we, on the >>> contrary to many other GIS, still have all the control mechanisms in >>> place which avoid that the user mixes projections. So that's all fine. >>> >> And what will you do after 'just starting'? Do you have your data as LL? Or >> will you use -o flag to ignore the projection check? >> >>> >>> Also in Portland at the FOSS4G conf (where I showcased GRASS GIS 7) >>> people suggested to let 'em get into the system right away. They >>> explained to me that a newcomer wants to see the menu to understand >>> how powerful the system is. But they would get stuck at the welcome >>> screen... Yes, and they don't want to think before they open the >>> program but "just try", out of curiosity. >>> >> >> This is a good point. I can see that. However, manual is also useful for >> this. This is what I use. Works for command line programs too. >> >> To satisfy everybody, I suggest to provide a buttons with something like >> "Take me to LL", "Take me to default location" and "Take me to XY". What do >> you think about that? >> >> But the real improvement should be the messages which would guide you >> through the process. > > A suggestion for a compromise: > > Have a minimal welcome screen that says something like > "Starting GRASS GIS in location X, mapset Y"
Which would be the last opened mapset or, if opened for the first time, the demo mapset? > nothing else, no list of all the available locations and mapsets > > Only two buttons: OK, Change > Make OK the default, Change will bring up the current welcome screen. I would add a third button which says "Start in demo location" to make it easier to return to the demo location after having already used GRASS GIS - for e.g. running examples and tests of other applications which use the demo dataset. > > The user has then just to hit enter and GRASS is running. This would > reduce the (confusing) amount of information on the current welcome > screen. It would also give more space for a little graphic ;-) > > Location and mapset can be taken from GISRC, if that does not exist, > create a new GISDBASE in the user's home, put the demolocation in it > and use this (I think the wingrass installer is already doing that). This sounds like a good compromise. And if then there is a nice QGIS like dialog to create a new location / mapset including projections, to start GRASS would be much easier. Thinking of it - a history of recently used mapsets on the welcome screen, which shows the projection, extent and the file path, is something which would be really useful. Cheers, Rainer > > Markus M -- Rainer M. Krug email: Rainer<at>krugs<dot>de PGP: 0x0F52F982
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