Just to expand a few cents ...
The lines / points / areas concepts and parameters available through a GUI at
F2 with drop-down choices for drawing the scraps - that's great, we understood
and used that. That is not the issue.
However, the windows presented at F1 and F3 require the new user
1: to learn / understand writing a language - the commands and parameters -
from scratch.
2: to learn / understand in which screen each command / parameters and
definitions and extra code should go.
The new user is expecting to get hands-on with drawing up within a few minutes,
not having to copy/paste and write code before getting any sensible output.
The GUI for the F3 screen could, for example, present the user with drop-down
boxes for setting up all the required outputs and customising layout etc etc.
The new user is a caver who wants to produce a survey, then more complicated
surveys/maps then a geographical area with surveys/maps - obviously this takes
time to learn but the learning process is hampered by having to (unnecessarily)
learn the language syntax and the parameters. He/she knows what output scale to
use, what symbol set to use, what size printout/pdf is expected etc but having
to find the code to porgramme the application is frustrating.
None of the above comments stops more advanced users (big project coordinators)
from "getting under the bonnet".
[My background: 40 years of surveying and drawing surveys through sin / cos
tables to Survex / DistoX / Therion etc. Organising and coordinating the
Matienzo Caves expeditions to Cantabria. Here, new passage is being found in
known or new sites all the time. Much surveying is required which needs
organising from single cave surveys through to showing centre lines/surveys
over the whole permit area (and beyond!) on contoured maps, Google Earth etc.
(Many years ago, I wrote a cave survey programme for the Archimedes which
processed survey data and showed the centre line growing on-screen - but we
then had to switch to PCs. There are currently more than 3600 entrances
(including many digs) and more than 325km of passage. Most surveys are now
drawn up in Corel Draw, some in Inkscape, and Footleg is producing a 54km cave
network survey in Tunnel.]
Anything to encourage cavers to produce a final output, ie a friendly front end
to Therion, would be superb.
Juan Corrin
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