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Commit | Line | Data |
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50a14534 EB |
1 | STATUS |
2 | ||
10aae26b | 3 | 1. Done |
50a14534 EB |
4 | 2. Trivial, can do if want |
5 | 3. Already done; needs some reworking | |
6 | 4. I tried; I can always try again! | |
7 | 5. a. done | |
8 | b. Brilliant! | |
9 | c. impossible | |
10 | 6. | |
11 | ||
12 | Dear Evan and list, | |
13 | ||
14 | I spent the afternoon today tinkering with Viking 0.1.0, and came up with | |
15 | the following list of criticisms. I hope that you all will find these | |
16 | constructive, and I do regret that I have time only to criticize and not | |
17 | contribute myself. Also, let me emphasize that Viking is damn cool, and | |
18 | these are only ways to make it even better. | |
19 | ||
20 | In terms of context, my current use of Viking is to plan backpacking trips. | |
21 | I basically download the topos of areas of interest, and then draw in | |
22 | potential routes using the track tool. I then export the images to the GIMP | |
23 | and hack them further. Here is one example: | |
24 | ||
25 | http://reidster.net/trips/halls-ck-lower-escalante-loop/ | |
26 | ||
27 | Comments, of course, welcome. | |
28 | ||
29 | Again, thanks for all the hard work on Viking! I hope to contribute myself | |
30 | one day. | |
31 | ||
32 | Reid | |
33 | ||
34 | ||
35 | Constructive Criticism for Viking | |
36 | --------------------------------- | |
37 | ||
38 | 1. Use autoconf/automake. Currently, if things (e.g. gtk, glib) are missing, | |
39 | the build simply fails, sometimes quite spectacularly. This will also | |
40 | bring in all sorts of handy niceties such as an "install" make target, | |
41 | etc. | |
42 | ||
43 | 2. The top-level map directories appear to have the form "tZsXXzYY". Does tZ | |
44 | stand for "type Z" where type is terraserver, google, expedia, etc.? If | |
45 | so, I suggest using a word rather than a number for greater transparency. | |
46 | ||
47 | 3. There ought to be a way to re-download map tiles, in case you mess with | |
48 | the files on disk like I did and download some aerial photos into the | |
49 | topo area. | |
50 | ||
51 | 4. Panning (which is scads faster than v0.0.9, BTW) leaves screen junk in the | |
52 | panned-into region. Perhaps this area could be filled in with a solid | |
53 | color (say, a light steel gray?) until the new image can be drawn? | |
54 | ||
55 | I do really like that panning is lightning-fast, and drawing new data is | |
56 | deferred until I stop dragging. | |
57 | ||
58 | 5. I like that downloading maps doesn't bring up a new window anymore. | |
59 | However, there needs to be more feedback on what is going on. I'd like to | |
60 | see the following: | |
61 | ||
62 | a. Status indicator somewhere saying how many maps are waiting to be | |
63 | downloaded. | |
64 | ||
65 | b. Map tiles which are blank but queued for download are highlighted in | |
66 | some way (say, color them pink?). | |
67 | ||
68 | c. Map tiles are drawn as soon as they are available. Currently, new tiles | |
69 | aren't drawn in until another redraw event comes in. | |
70 | ||
71 | 6. Changing zoom level to a large scale (e.g. zoom out 64x) is slow, esp. if | |
72 | you only use the 4x4 meter resolution topos, as I do. This slowness is | |
73 | fine, but I think there ought to be an indicator that Viking is thinking | |
74 | -- the watch cursor, perhaps. I don't think a full-blown percentage bar | |
75 | window is necessary. | |
76 | ||
77 | 7. Resizes to the layer info panel (or, the window config in general) should | |
78 | stored in the Viking file so they're persistent across sessions. | |
79 | ||
80 | 8. It should be clearer which tool is active. Each tool should have its own | |
81 | cursor. | |
82 | ||
83 | 9. Visibility of the start/end trackpoints of a track should be controllable | |
84 | independently of the visibility of interior points. I think that it would | |
85 | also be handy if, near the start/end trackpoints, "Foobar start" and | |
86 | "foobar end" could be drawn, since otherwise I forget the tracks' names | |
87 | and I don't remember which little symbol is the end and which is the | |
88 | beginning. | |
89 | ||
90 | 10. There should be a concept of a "current track". The current track should | |
91 | be drawn in a different color, and it should be highlighted in the list in | |
92 | the same color. The "Create Track" tool should extend the current track by | |
93 | adding on to the end point. | |
94 | ||
95 | Also, it's important to be able to have no current track; in this case the | |
96 | Create Track tool will start a new track. At the moment, I can't figure | |
97 | out how to start a brand new track after I've been editing one without | |
98 | restarting the program. Perhaps separate Begin Track and Extend Track | |
99 | tools would be a good idea? | |
100 | ||
101 | 11. Track colors are kind of strange under "Track drawing mode: draw by | |
102 | track". Here are some suggestions: | |
103 | ||
104 | a. Once a track is assigned a color, it should never change except by the | |
105 | user changing its color directly. (There might be a global "recolor | |
106 | tracks" command, in case the user wants help.) | |
107 | ||
108 | b. There needs to be more contrast between the auto-assigned colors, and | |
109 | the number of colors doesn't need to be too big. I would say, pick | |
110 | three or four contrasting colors and rotate between them. | |
111 | ||
112 | c. When a path is split at a trackpoint, the portion closer to the end | |
113 | point should be the one to change color. Perhaps a secondary dialog | |
114 | box listing the two new tracks, their names, and their colors, with | |
115 | opportunity to edit the last two items? | |
116 | ||
117 | d. A path's color should appear in its list entry, too. Perhaps a small | |
118 | square by the name? | |
119 | ||
120 | 12. I might further increase the contrast of the current trackpoint (selected | |
121 | with the edit trackpoint tool). Perhaps rather than changing its size, | |
122 | draw a big bold crosshair centered on it? | |
123 | ||
124 | 13. Tracks names should permit mixed-case. | |
125 | ||
126 | 14. IMO, being able to customize the background color is an unnecessary | |
127 | feature, and should be removed to ease maintenance. | |
128 | ||
129 | 15. I would rename the menu item "Zoom To..." to "Zoom to Custom..." and the | |
130 | "Zoom" submenu to "Zoom To". | |
131 | ||
132 | 16. Type size in the layer list should be configurable. | |
133 | ||
134 | 17. Perhaps dragging with the middle button should pan. I think this would | |
135 | complement well the existing center at location of middle click. | |
136 | ||
137 | 18. Deleting something big, like a track or a layer, should have a | |
138 | confirmation box. | |
139 | ||
140 | 19. It would be nice to have more information in the interface about which | |
141 | maps will be used depending on the "zoom level" of a map layer. For | |
142 | example, in a Terraserver topo layer, I had to discover by trial and | |
143 | error that <= 8x means "use 24,000:1 topo maps" and >= 16x means "use | |
144 | 100,000:1 topo maps". | |
145 | ||
146 | 20. Consider an XML file format rather than the existing ad-hoc one. | |
147 | ||
148 | 21. The ability to rotate and move waypoint text would be fabulous. | |
149 | ||
150 | 22. When moving waypoints, it would be great if a greyed copy of the waypoint | |
151 | text and dot moved with the mouse. | |
152 | ||
153 | 23. I'd like the ability to customize the waypoint dot symbol. Personally, I'd | |
154 | prefer an X to the dot. | |
155 | ||
156 | ||
157 | ||
158 |