Good point. Organizing these for developers is one thing, but there may be different approaches to how they are presented to the users.
Talking with people who have switched from ArcGIS to GRASS, one of the things I hear is that geoprocessing functions are MUCH easier to find in GRASS without the Toolbox interface used by Arc.
The different FOSS GIS packages have different approaches/philosophies about how to package and present their tools, related to different functional goals. What might be an extra for one package could well be a core tool for another.
Michael
____________________
C. Michael Barton
Director, Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
Professor of Anthropology, School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Arizona State University
voice: 480-965-6262 (SHESC), 480-727-9746 (CSDC)
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On Jan 4, 2012, at 6:37 AM, <grass-dev-request@lists.osgeo.org> <grass-dev-request@lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:37:54 +0100
From: Robert Szczepanek <robert@szczepanek.pl>
Subject: Re: [GRASS-dev] grass toolboxes idea continued (g.extension)
To: Benjamin Ducke <benducke@fastmail.fm>
Cc: GRASS developers list <grass-dev@lists.osgeo.org>
Message-ID: <4F037532.4060307@szczepanek.pl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowedHi Ben,
This is very good idea.
At the moment it sounds more like useful tool for developers, not
directly users. Mentioned projects implement common libraries and
modules in their own style and structure. And I don't think it will
change soon. This is however good moment to start discussion about
unified hierarchy.
But this can be good point to start with common tags. Such tags (simple
to implement and transparent) will help developers build toolboxes and
implement frameworks [1].regards,
Robert
[1] http://polymeris.github.com/qgis/W dniu 03.01.2012 21:31, Benjamin Ducke pisze:
Since there are at least four major FOSS desktop GIS
projects (GRASS, SAGA, SEXTANTE + gvSIG, QGIS + GRASS plugin),
each of which faces the same problem of sorting geoprocessing
tools into groups, I wonder: Would it be worth the effort
to try to establish a common hierarchy/grouping standard for
for geoprocessing tools across GIS? Sort of like the LSB
(Linux Standard Base - Wikipedia) for
Linux file system hierarchies?I imagine this would make it much easier for users to work
with different FOSS GIS and always find the tools they need.A common standard could also include labels and descriptions,
plus their translations into different languages, and of
course icons for GUIs.Ben