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

[Adrian Custer <acuster@xxxxxxxxx>]

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?
        
        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). 
        
        The map graphics obviously need work:
                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. 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 ...?
                
        
        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.
                
                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.
        
        

(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