[Openstreetmap-dev] Feasibility of clients of the OpenStreetMap 0.2 API, and Freemap

[nick at hogweed.org]

> If it is too slow for freemap, it is too slow for almost any offline
> application. In this case, we could abandon any public data interface at
> all and only develop an intern renderer application with direct access
> to the database.

It turns out it's not too slow after all... see www.free-map.org.uk/osm/.
It's still rather slow in areas with lots of data, but that can be solved with 
gzip encoding.

I think a data interface is essential for flexibility, so that people can do 
with the data what they want. 

(That said, in terms of my freemap plans I'm now more thinking of working on 
the osm renderer direct....)


> I think the way "server gives the data, you render the map" is good. If
> performance is a real concern, there are ways of dealing with that
> without loosing the seperation.

I agree and think we should keep this plan.

> > Maybe gzipping would speed this up acceptably though.
>
> As example this is a good start for performance case :).
>
> However, if the freemap server resides on the same machine, ziping and
> unziping to localhost slows down.

>
> a) Provide a data server for clients to modify map data in a wiki like
> style
>
> b) Provide a web-client for users to modify map data in a wiki like
> style
>
> c) Both: a and b. (This leads to a more complex, error prone and
> probably inperformant server).
>

In my opinion I'd say c) - develop a powerful web client *and* data server. 
Any thoughts on this?

Nick