[Geotools-devel] [udig-devel] Testing for RC9 (plus image pyramid plans)

[Jesse Eichar]

On 3-Feb-07, at 10:08 AM, Adrian Custer wrote:

> Hey all,
>
>
> RC9 unofficial runs well on this GNU install (linux/X/Gnome on intel
> i386 centrino). Jesse (and all the others), it looks like you have  
> done
> very good work, thanks.
>
> Below are quick thoughts to consider as you see fit; I'm sure you know
> about most of these and some are long term issues so this is just a
> brainstorm:
>
> (for uDig)
>
>         Where's the measurement tool?

It is one of the information tools (under the i tool)

>
>         Why does the zoom tool look like such garbage (big cross  
> with a
>         non-descript, wanna be magnifying glass below)? Ibid for the
>         other tools (info tool is half black, half white, all junky).
>

It is because the icons and the Icon API was designed for windows and  
platform dependence caught me.  Its in the bug tracker.

>         The map graphics obviously need work:

In a word: yes

>                 1) the grid style info makes no sense: x,y relative to
>                 what? what kind of width? A user probably wants the  
> grid
>                 on degree lines or every xkms vertically and
>                 horizontally. For non mercator projections, does the
>                 'grid' stay orthogonal or is it a real map grid?
>                 2) the legend shows the visible layers also shown  
> in the
>                 "layers' view. Perhaps, for clarity, the map graphics
>                 layers should have a different look in the layers view
>                 so that this parallism is more 'natural'. Could the  
> map
>                 graphics be shown on a slightly grey background to
>                 distinguish 'map' layers from 'graphic' layers?
>
>                 2.2) the legend view takes the size of the layers  
> in the
>                 map but only shows the visible layers so it's much too
>                 big with a blank empty spot below when they are layers
>                 in the layer view that are not being displayed.
>
>                 2.3) the legend view should not zoom with the map zoom
>                 but stay put (and it will not change with that
>                 operation). Ibid with a pan operation.
>
>                 2.4) the legend view should disappear on mouse over  
> with
>                 an editing tool (or it is visually in the way even  
> if it
>                 doesn't physically interfere with the edit).
>
>         Making a new layer to serve as a bounding box for zoom  
> requires
>         that the edit tool allow us to (1) draw vertical and  
> horizontal
>         lines and (2) match up the end point with the start point. For
>         the latter, the first three points of a rectangle can be built
>         with a way to draw only horizontal and vertical lines, however
>         the fourth point needs to be placed in reference to the first
>         point. The 'shift-' or 'ctrl-' key should help us draw
>         vert/horizontal lines.

Very good point.  I've added a jira for this.

> Letting users close the rectangle is
>         harder since they have to find the place to click exactly
>         opposite the original click: perhaps the 'polygon' tool should
>         show the closing segment, perhaps the 'ctrl' key should act  
> like
>         a 'snap to grid' tool based on a grid built from the original
>         point (so a user will easily see the point exactly matched  
> with
>         the original), or ...?
>

You can double click to close a polygon also the vertex changes color  
when mouse is over the end vertex to assist in determining when you  
can click.

>
>         Selection in the table view: it's getting better, cool!
>
>                 'ctrl-' or 'shift-' + 'mouse drag' should add to the
>                 selection rather than having all selections replace  
> the
>                 existing set.

Jira made
>
>                 Select two layers in the layers view then, drag  
> mouse on
>                 the screen: leads to selection only of the features in
>                 the topmost layer. The user needs some feedback that
>                 uDig is doing something weird, maybe just a warning in
>                 the status bar "Warning: multiple layers with  
> different
>                 attributes selected, selection will act only of top
>                 layer features". A user should see relatively quickly
>                 what has happened but, because they might expect
>                 something different, uDig should have a standard  
> way to
>                 give feedback (and a pop up dialog seems heavy).
>                 Similarly, if multiple selected layers have the same
>                 attribute set, they can be displayed in the same  
> table.
>

I'll address this sort of issues in reply to 	Gabriel's email.

Thanks for the feedback.

Jesse

>
>
> (for uDig and Geotools/Simone)
>
> uDig now has a 'web catalog' view that gives a list of WMS and WFS
> sources! VERY COOL. It's what new users want and works very nicely so
> congrats on the hard work.
>
> Obviously, this still needs to be improved. For example, panning  
> half a
> screen over current discards the currently visible tile right away and
> requests a whole new tile. uDig should keep the 'tile' of the existing
> background image and keep showing it until the new request has been
> fulfilled.
>
> However, it seems like Simone can lead us to bigger and better things.
> Simone, when uDig eventually integrates your work, will it be possible
> to make a set of structured requests of the WMS to build a temporary
> image pyramid to improve user responsiveness. A user has at most
> 2000x2000 pixels on their screen. The base request should be for
> whatever area of interest (extent and scale) the map has when the user
> adds the layer to the map (or makes it visible). However, once that
> request is fulfilled, couldn't uDig start building an image pyramid on
> the fly so that whatever the user does next (pan, zoom) uDig would  
> have
> the data. We can see immediately that there are a whole slew of issues
> that arise in designing such a background pyramid building. Is this
> something some of you have been pondering?
>
>
> Thanks again for all the work on RC9,
> --adrian
>
>
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