Startup for beginners

[akks]

As we are introducing expert for to hide most complex features from beginners, we can also simplify first start screen of JOSM. Some of the people asks "Where is the Map???" and close JOSM (when they do not have enougn motivation to read something, for example scroll new features html to that description).

Maybe it would be good to open "Download from OSM" dialog at first startup (and add checkbox like "Run on startup" to it, turned on in non-expert mode by default). This feature need discussion of course.

[akks]

Here is the simple patch I made. Since it modifies default startup behaviour (and it is stabilization phase now), I do not commit it without discussion and permission.
Possible problems:

• I do not know how to make default value dependent on expert mode. Is it needed or expert users can just turn off checkbox once to get rid of autostart?
• Moment to show dialog is chosen intuitively, I hope it will not cause crashes on particular systems. (please have a look at MainApplication.java)

[akks]

Should we consider it after stable release? Or maybe it is better to commit, turning autostart off by default?

[bastiK]

Replying to akks:

Here is the simple patch I made. Since it modifies default startup behaviour (and it is stabilization phase now), I do not commit it without discussion and permission.
Possible problems:

• I do not know how to make default value dependent on expert mode.

Just use Main.pref.get(key, null). If the result is != null, then take it, otherwise check expert setting.

Is it needed or expert users can just turn off checkbox once to get rid of autostart?

• Moment to show dialog is chosen intuitively, I hope it will not cause crashes on particular systems. (please have a look at MainApplication.java)

I'm not sure it would really be helpful to display the download dialog at start. First of all it is against the normal workflow - to open a gpx track and do a download afterwards (so you don't have to zoom the the location manually). Second this may suggest, that you can only do one download per session and you have to close and reopen JOSM in order to edit another area. In other words it is not immediately clear how to get back to this dialog once it is closed.

What I could imagine, is a "Getting started" dialog window. Many applications show a "tip of the day" window. This would be similar, but would describe very basic steps to do a simple edit.

[akks]

I am afraid novices dislike reading :(

You are right, but for beginners editing starts from downloading map and adding BING in 99% cases - I am tired to answer question "What to do?" on our forum :)

I think, we need "getting started" or wide panel on top of motd.html in perspective, with buttons/pictures linking to unfinished configuration steps and downloading / opening. And something like "Open last session".

My idea was to show non-expert users "wher is the map". What if I put some message like "To download another part of data please press Ctrl-Shift-D or "Download from OSM" in File menu" in title/statusbar when dialog is autostarted and turn autostart off by default for expert user that did not choose it explicitly?

[akks]

In [4906/josm]:

See #7303: Added option to run Download dialog on startup and help line in non-expert mode

[akks]

I have commited newer version of this patch - autorun is disabled for all by default, help line about map controls is added for non-experts.

We now need some BIG and clickable link for beginners to start editing on startingmain screen :)
Something like big panel with
[picture] Download from OSM | [picture] Open recent <list> | [picture] Enter OSM login details [shown only if not entered]