[Xastir] YAFRODU

[Curt, WE7U]

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005, James Ewen wrote:

> > My vote currently would be to have a built-in mode that starts
> > automatically the first time Xastir is run, with the option to opt
> > out, probably with an option to opt-out permanently, or just for
> > this run.  That way people could get back to it again by restarting
> > Xastir, or we could add a menu option for Guided Setup.
>
> What about a command line option to request setup help?
>
> xastir -firstrun
>
> Or something like that?
>
> You need to offer help for those who simply wish to get Xastir up and
> running, and see what it has to offer. The biggest drawback is the month
> long learning curve trying to learn the ins and outs of Linux while still
> trying to get a program to run. There needs to be a quick and easy set of
> basic maps to grab, rather than simply saying use whatever you want. Once
> you've gotten things figured out, and know what Xastir can do, you won't go
> back. Xastir needs to be easier to get in front of the new user so that they
> don't give up in frustration. Once you get them hooked, then you can force
> them to learn more about the different map capabilities, and teach them
> about Linux.

The command-line option certainly would work, and work well.
Another option would just be to have a variable in the config file
that gets set when someone is permanently done with the startup
help.  Hitting "Don't ever show me this dialog again" would set it,
anything else would leave it unset.  Xastir would check it at
startup and skip the newuser dialog if it was set.  This also gives
an easy way for someone to undo the flag (edit the config file) to
get back to an initial condition.  Of course just deleting the
config file or the entire ~/.xastir directory would do the same
thing.

Several of you are asking for this newuser config dialog.  Come up
with recommendations for the best methods to do it and we should be
able to squeeze it in there eventually.  Perhaps a separate
graphical program like Tk/Perl or Python might be a better way to
go, as then someone can do it in a GUI designer and it'll be easy to
change/update.  I can see this requiring a lot of changes.

Thinking out loud:  If we had a graphical program that you run
before you run Xastir (or it gets run by Xastir if the
aforementioned flag was not set) and had a default world map, would
that be enough?  Do we need more yet?

--
Curt, WE7U.   APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
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