[Openstreetmap-dev] osm-editor... more details

[nick at hogweed.org]

On Saturday 27 August 2005 05:06, Lars Aronsson wrote:
> nick at hogweed.org wrote:
> > Here are the extra details on the new version of osm-editor for
> > the dev list, with particular relevance to hooking it up to a
> > server e.g. the OSM server...
>
> Honestly, how many nodes are created with this client and how many
> are created with the applet?  Aren't they both dead-end projects?

No, but the people working on them have got other commitments :-)

> A total of 3000 nodes have been created in the last week,
> according to http://www.openstreetmap.org/wiki/index.php/Stat
> Just like Wikipedia needs people who know ophthalmology to write
> the article on ophthalmology, OSM needs people who know Glasgow to
> draw the map of Glasgow.  If we are really lucky, they also own a
> GPS receiver and are interested in maps.  But can we also expect
> same people to know how to install the OSM editor or even a Java
> plugin?  If we want the project to catch speed and scale up, I
> think we need something that is as easy to start as a wiki edit
> window.  I would guess that means JavaScript and AJAX.

A good idea for some things - e.g. a user could place the location of a hill, 
pub, pizza place, etc using AJAX, or even draw polygons using Landsat data as 
a guide. Indeed I'm looking into it myself (see past posts). However I don't 
think it would be the best solution for *line* editing as there is no way to 
do client-side live line drawing with JS yet. Not until SVG becomes widely 
supported anyhow... again SVG is something I'm meaning to look into.

Nick