[Gvsig_english] 12 Suggestions to Improve gvSIG Usability

[Kevin Wells]

List,
Here are 12 suggestions to improve gvSIG's useability. I think these
changes are fairly simple to make. (But I'm not a developer*yet, so I
don't know.)  Thank you developers for your time, talents, and efforts.
1. Eliminate the bouncing that occurs when toolbars are turned on and
off. Currently, whenever a user clicks on views, tables, maps, or the
project manager, toolbars appear or disappear. This re-sizes the toolbar
area causing views, tables, and maps to shift up or down, making gvSIG
very bouncy. Eliminating this will make using gvSIG smooth. Two possible
solutions: have toolbars always visible and gray out when inactive, or
make the toolbar area a constant size (height) sufficient to hold all
the toolbars without re-sizing.
2. Make the views, tables, and maps ready to use when they are first
created by having them larger and near the center. The views, tables,
and maps are the working areas of gvSIG. They are the most important
real estate; yet, currently they are they are small and in the upper
left corner when created. They are important. Make them large and near
the center upon creation. The best thing would be if the user could
designate starting size and location of views, tables, and maps in the
preferences. Perhaps it could be percentage sizes and locations based
upon the overall size of gvSIG at the moment. If it is too much to
create preference settings the next best option is to hard code larger
sizes so that they are ready to use without re-sizing.
3. When gvSIG starts have a view open and the program immediately ready
to add data. Currently a user has to create a view, open the view, then
re-size and center the view before the program is ready to add data. The
first thing a user wants to do after gvSIG starts is load data (or
perhaps open an existing project). If the program started with a view
opened and centered the user can immediately start working. The view can
be in the default projection.
4. Have some visual space around a layer after using *zoom to layer*.
Currently, gvSIG zooms to the exact extent of a layer, causing the layer
to touch the sides of the view. It would be nice if it zoomed to a
slightly larger extent so that the view contained some visual space
around the layer. It would be great if in the preferences the user could
set a percentage extent size for the *zoom to layer*.
5. Add *Show Attribute Table* and *Export to* to the right click menu
of a layer. These are often used GIS tasks and many GIS users expect to
have access to these options by right clicking on a layer in the TOC.
6. After adding an element to a map have the cursor automatically
change to the *select by rectangle* arrow. Users want to immediately
manipulate new map elements after they are added, so it would be
wonderful if the cursor automatically changed to the *select by
rectangle* cursor. Currently, the cursor remains the same and users
rarely need to add the same type of element again.
7. Use the *select by point* arrow as the default cursor when a view is
created or data is added to a view. Currently the default cursor is
zoom. Users often inspect or *touch* new data layers after loading them.
It is not desirable for the zoom to be the default cursor.
8. Fix the switched width and height error when setting a map size.
Currently, when you set a map's width and height in Map * Page Setup the
resulting map is the opposite of what you set. The width became the
height. The height became the width.
9. Fix the measurement units in Map * Page Setup. Currently, when you
custom size a map no matter which measurement units you select gvSIG
considers the width and height as centimeters. This is bug 13229 with a
low priority number of 1. To a user wanting to create a map of a
specific size and not use centimeters this is a high priority bug. (OK,
this one may not be a simple fix. But it is important to users.)
10. Have a much smaller command line area when editing mode is started.
Many users do not use the command line for edits. They use the mouse and
toolbar tools. Currently, the command line window covers much of the
view area and the data. Of course, the best option would be if settings
in the preferences could be set to control this. Then each user could
set to his/her preference.
11. Have a view or map immediately open after it is created. This
reduces to one the number of clicks needed to create and open a map or
view. Currently, a user has to click on the new button to create a view
or map, click on the view or map's name in the project manager to select
it, then click on the open button to open the view or map. Users almost
always want to open a newly created map or view. It would be great if
one click on the new button creates and opens a new view or map.
12. Have the default names given to views and maps be *View* and *Map*
instead of *Untitled*. Also have them start with *1* instead of *0*. So
the default names of consecutively created views would be: *View - 1*,
*View - 2*, *View - 3*, etc. Consecutively created maps would be:
*Map - 1*, *Map - 2*, *Map - 3*, etc.
Kevin


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