[Xastir] Maps, Defaults, and Chooser

[Tom Russo]

On Wed, Dec 06, 2006 at 09:26:24AM -0800, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <archer at eskimo.com> flavor, containing:
> On Wed, 6 Dec 2006, Steve Friis wrote:
> 
> > I use auto maps. I have two main configurations. The first is set up in
> > Auto maps. The second  configuration I have set  up as selected  maps.
> > Turning on  auto maps disables the regular selected  maps, so they don't
> > show up  in the display. I thought this was a great feature.
> >
> > > Auto Maps should perhaps be turned off by default though (or removed
> > > from the code).  What do people think?
> > >
> > Turning auto maps on  or off doesn't matter,  just PLEASE don't remove
> > the feature.
> 
> Ah, I see what you're doing.  I hadn't thought of doing that
> exactly.
> 
> Now...  Should we eventually implement a MapSet feature, where you
> can select different groups of maps at once (and probably a
> different set of properties for each), would you then migrate to the
> new system or would you still be missing something you need?

YES!

> The only thing I can see the Auto Maps buying somebody right now is
> a way to not have to go in and change your selected maps as you move
> around, but you can do the same by selecting all maps at once in the
> Map Chooser.

It is a royal pain to set up big batches of maps in the chooser right now
unless they're very carefully organized into directories.  If I didn't 
hate the way my maps came out when using automaps, I'd probably do just about
anything to avoid having to deal with the map chooser and its properties
dialog.  The chooser's horrid interface makes it take a lot of mouse clicking 
unless you just happen to have the directories set up so that you can do 
directory-by-directory "select all" operations and then globally set 
parameters for like maps.

For example, I typically set all my tiger line files to max zoom 2048, layer 
100, and my tiger polygons to max zoom 4096, layer 90.  (my layer number
choices predate the current default settings, so I picked 0, 90, 100, and 1000
for raster, polygon, line and point files a very long time ago)  If I dump
all of a state's files (line and polygon) into one directory, I have to do 
a huge amount of clicking when I add a new state.  On the other hand, if I
put polygons in one directory and lines in a parallel directory, I can just
clear the entire map selection, add the one directory, and do it by a select 
all.  It's painful, but less painful than the other way.

In the set I made of maps to hand out to New Mexico SAR types during
xastir evangelism, I provide a pre-set map_index.sys to use with a brand new 
xastir install so that people get a sane set of layering and zooming defaults.  
If I didn't do that, it would take hours to set up the 2GB of maps I provided.

The map properties dialog is evil and wee hatesssss it.  Unfortunately, 
improving it within the motif framework we have would be very, very difficult.
Of course, since the map_index.sys file is just a flat ascii file it could 
probably be edited by an external non-motif wizard program ... now *there's*
a fun thought.

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
"And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is
 one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh,
 oooh, the sky is the limit!"  --- The Tick