As others have said, I think there is a lot of room for improvement in tooling that is more end-user friendly yet can still leverage the power of Therion in the background to compile maps, stats, etc.
I've built some software for a specialized survey project I've been working on to ease managing the data, redefining symbols, etc. I have a web interface to import and manage survey data, it is all stored in a SQL database. I then create th and th2 files programmatically when I wish to compile a PDF map. There are some advantages to this approach as I can do things like easily generate my own KML files using some symbology I've developed, easily query the database to do shortest path searches between two survey stations, or make changes to my Therion input file structure that I'd otherwise have to manually edit hundreds of .th and .th2 files to achieve. Unfortunately my program has been specialized for a very specific survey project, and does not have the right features to serve as a general purpose data management tool and is not available for general release. But the lesson I've learned is that there is a lot of power behind being able to access and modify the data in more advanced ways then simply editing text files, also that to implement an easy, powerful and flexible GUI to do this is not a quick project :P Carl On Mar 14, 2012, at 4:23 AM, Bruce wrote: > Juan and others > So I think we generally agree that an improved interface would be nice to > have. > And our experience to date is that it is unlikely to happen anytime soon. > > >However, the windows presented at F1 (text editor) and F3 (compiler) require > >the new user > >1: to learn / understand writing a language - the commands and parameters - > >from scratch. > >2: to learn / understand in which screen each command / parameters and > >definitions and extra code should go. > > >The new user is expecting to get hands-on with drawing up within a few > >minutes, not having to copy/paste and write code before getting any sensible > >output. > >The GUI for the F3 screen could, for example, present the user with > >drop-down boxes for setting up all the required outputs and customising > >layout etc etc. > > I have never expected or achieved this (as a new user) with any cave > centerline application let alone a drawing application, so Therion is not > alone in this, but I would agree it requires more determination than most. > Obtaining outputs with your own data in a few minutes is however a reasonable > expectation to aspire to. We could do better with sample datasets, the > existing ones demonstrate a variety of features but they are not documented > usefully, so most people will miss the significance or reasons for what is > being demonstrated. It would be rash of me to offer to document them, but > perhaps one distant day⦠> > >There are currently more than 3600 entrances (including many digs) and more > >than 325km of passage. Most surveys are now drawn up in Corel Draw, some in > >Inkscape, and Footleg is >producing a 54km cave network survey in Tunnel.] > > >Anything to encourage cavers to produce a final output, ie a friendly front > >end to Therion, would be superb. > > > I see your problem now I think, as I have perhaps a similar (but much > smaller) headache with a ~30km (so far) project with a few dozen caves and > entrances covering 60km2. My issue with Therion is more of a documentation > and organizational guidance problem. In the absence of a super-interface it > seems that good guidance and templates for organizing data would be the next > best thing, and could even inform the design brief for a future interface. > I see the current Therion as experimental and perhaps half way towards having > a well developed and complete feature set, so again, a super-interface is > competing for developers time against developing and fixing some core > functionality that is especially needed for larger projects. > > While there is a lot of good information in the wiki, much of it is not > âwhat you need to know, when and where you need it.â I have started > putting some of my ideas in the wiki, but they are a long way off being > useful or complete as far as organization goes. And I still do not have good > feel for how to manage multiple output options for multiple caves in a modest > system, let alone anything over say 20km. I know a lot of you people are > dealing with much larger systems and so probably have a better grasp on it > than I, even if you are not exclusively using Therion. Still, perhaps I will > get around to making an effort adding some more thoughts and samples on > organization to the wiki, in the hope that someone will point out where I am > making it too complicated for myself. > Bruce > > _______________________________________________ > Therion mailing list > Therion at speleo.sk > http://mailman.speleo.sk/mailman/listinfo/therion -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mailman.speleo.sk/pipermail/therion/attachments/20120316/4baf06aa/attachment.html>
