Usecases for Marble
                         ===================


This file describes a number of potential usecases for the Marble
application and the Marble Widget.  For each usecase, we describe the
usecase itself, and which features need to be implemented for it to
become a reality.  

We also give an importance score (1-5) to each usecase, where the figures
have the following meaning:

  5 - Common task needed by many people. This will be implemented soon.
  4 - Common task or needed by many people but not both;
      This will be implemented at some point not too far away.
  3 - Somewhat common task used by a number of people.  not really urgent
  2 - Uncommon task or needed by few people
  1 - Not useful or very niche; unimportant.


We will also give a priority, which is a measure of how soon we want
to implement the feature or usecase.  This figure is somewhat more
arbitrary than the importance since it is based mainly on our own
feelings.  Priorities have numbers between 1 - 5 and indicated when
the usecase will be implemented:

  5 - Now or as soon as possible
  4 - Soon
  3 - When there is time
  2 - When somebody is bored
  1 - Probably never

Before the work for a new release starts, we will prioritize the new
features that we will implement based on which usecases we want to
support.  When this is done, the features that are necessary to
support the chosen usecases will be entered into the TODO file.  If
you want to see which features that are actually being worked on, see
the TODO file rather than this one.

NOTE: Priorities can be redone during the work.  This is free
      software after all, and people work on what they want.


Use Cases
---------

1. Digital World Atlas

The user starts the Marble application to find out more about a
certain region or city that interests him/her or just to explore the
world.

Importance:     5
Priority:       5
Features:       - Wikipedia integration
                - Download of new tiles.
                - More tiles in greater resolution (Data)
                - Bookmarks
                - Names of areas like countries, states and municipalities
                - Better vector layer
                - Borders (Data)


2. Timezone chooser

The user chooses a timezone, e.g. when he installs the computer or
travels. 

Importance:     4
Priority:       3


3. Weather Applet

Show the weather report from a weather service.  

This is mainly work on the Widget, not the application.

Importance:     4
Priority:       3
Features:       - Improved handling of Layers
                - Let the application draw a layer


4. Night/day applet

Shows where on the world it is light or dark.  See also xearth.

Importance:     3
Priority:       3
Features:       - Layer effects (ligth/dark in this case)
                - Plugins?


5. GPS station

The user wants to track his movements in real time using an interface
with a gps device or wants to display gps data from live feeds or from 
previous gps sessions. 

Importance:     3-4
Priority:       4 (due to Andrew Manson's Summer of Code project)
Features:       - Tracking of current position on the view
                - Saving gps data from current session
                - Loading old gps data into the view
                - Downloading all information for sections of a map (so 
                  that the data is available in advance for a trip)
                - Loggin into live gps feeds 
                - Displaying more than one gps device

6. Flight planning

Importance:     ?
Priority:       ?
Features:       ?


7. Trip planning

Importance:     ?
Priority:       ?
Features:       ?


Features
--------

Here we describe the features that need to be implemented in order to
support the usecases above.  For each feature, we list a number
subfeatures that don't need to be implemented for the same release.


1. Wikipedia Integration

We have a rudimentary integration already, but it's not good enough.
For one thing, when a city is accessed it doesn't always use the same
name in the Marble database and in Wikipedia. Another thing is that
people might want to use Wikipedia in their own language instead of
just the English one.  

Subfeatures:    


FIXME: Much more here.