On 2008-04-28 09:08 +1200, Bruce Mutton wrote: > I still haven't seen anything written about Walls or Tunnel that would > make me try them... Well, I would try Walls, but it wouldn't download, > and now I like Therion for its conceptual simplicity, even if user error > detection can be a bit complex. > > From the Tunnel website... > > The disadvantages of Tunnel's way are as follows: > > 1. You have to do a lot of extra editing just to join in a new piece of > the survey. > > 2. You wind up with multiple copies of the same piece of cave in your > workspace. > > 3. You lose the connection to the original drawings so you can't > correct them in the original state and see the changes in the final > drawing. > > 4. It's not known how many times a survey could be copied and morphed > before unexpected errors of distortion would become a problem. > > 5. The files for a large survey can become rather large.
The above is correct, but I think doesn't do justice to Tunnel. It has significant advantages too, and thus is worth looking at. It produces nicer output than Therion, because it is possible to edit the final version, e.g. arranging labels in the context of the whole map, not just the current scraps (this is a _major_ problem with the current Therion implementation that pretty-much killed my work with until I get a faster computer). You can also do everything graphically, rather than editing mysterious text files, which is a big deal for the less-nerdy. Being able to use SVG symbols rather than write them in metapost is nice too. I avoided it for years because it was java, but that's less of a problem than it used to be, and I have been very impressed by the quality of the output: http://cucc.survex.com/expo/smkridge/204/surveys/plan2006.png Now that you've learned Therion there is not much point jumping ship, but I just thought I should correct theimpression given above. I will package Tunnel for Debian/Ubuntu when I get a chance so it will be a that bit easier to try it out. Wookey -- Principal hats: Balloonz - Toby Churchill - Aleph One - Debian http://wookware.org/
