[Xastir] fGIS for shapefile creation, any good?

[Tapio Sokura]

Hi,

I just did a quick test with fGIS. I loaded up a geotiff and then 
created a shapefile layer to which I digitized a few roads by following 
the road with the mouse. I saved the shapefile and put it into Xastir's 
map directory. I refreshed Xastir's map index and in the map chooser 
selected the shapefile I just digitized and there the shapefile was 
displayed on the map, just where I expected it to be.

Ok, so now I can do some simple digitizing with fGIS. Now I'd like to 
hear some tips and experiences on creating maps this way. I.e. if I for 
example wanted to name roads in the shapefile so I can display them in 
Xastir using dbfawk, what do I do? And in general how do I distinguish 
between large roads and small roads and so on. Obviously I have to get 
the information into the dbf file, but how do I do that neatly with fGIS?

I guess this is a bit off topic and answers to my questions could be 
found by googling a bit (or via fGIS oriented mailing-list), I'm just 
trying to solicit some experiences and tips from those who have used 
fGIS. At least the learning curve is a lot smoother than with GRASS, for 
example. But a QSY to 2m horizontal..

   Tapio