LatLongBoundingBox?

[Russell Nelson]

Bernhard Reiter writes:
 > >  > Another idea to work around the problems would to be to have an
 > >  > outline mode that always makes at least one red dot when a layer is
 > >  > outside the current view being to small or so.
 > >  > Otherwise it mark the bounding box.
 > > 
 > > IMHO, if you have a layer which has been selected to be visible, and
 > > its LatLonBoundingBox does not overlap the current map view, the
 > > corner or edge closest to the data should say "LAYERNAME is over
 > > there" with an arrow.  If you don't want to see that, and you *meant*
 > > for the layer to be off the map, turn off its visibility.
 > 
 > This is something similiar to the red dot idea I outlined above.

I didn't quite understand the details of it.  Where is this red dot
drawn?

I have another question: I can see how this would be good for a GIS
newbie (that would be ... me).  How often does a GIS professional run
into the "lost layer" problem?  I'm trying to figure out if this is a
feature that is useful for everyone, or only useful for beginners.
Useful for beginners is good, but if it's not useful for experts, then
it's just wasted cycles and a cluttered display.

 > I think it is a good idea to have such a target tracking mode
 > in one or the other way. Using a red color in a frame could help us
 > to signal the other potential situations, too.
 > Like when you are too much into a layer to actually see a feature,
 > then the hole frame could be red.

How about using a set of "location" icons in the layer list, then?
You could have a square box indicating the view.  You could have a
squiggle indicating the layer data.  The icons would show where each
layer data is relative to the view.  Argh, I can't draw this in
ASCII.  I'll quick whip up a set of pictures:

http://russnelson.com/thuban-icons/

It would be relatively simple to throw one of these icons into the
list of layers, indicating the location of the layer extents relative
to the current view.

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