[OSM-dev] Markers for OSM slippy maps

[Nick Whitelegg]

Over the last couple of nights I've been working on Freemap so that it offers 
the user a choice of either the new Mapnik maps or the New Popular Edition 
maps. As part of this process I've added the facility for Freemap users to 
add markers to the map. There will be an announcement on this on the talk 
list soon.

A lot of the marker code is generic and could be re-used in any OSM-based 
"mashup" (one I'm thinking of creating, for example, is a facility to allow 
people to leave notes after surveying on top of the slippy map, e.g 'lots of 
undone cul-de-sacs here', which other people can then pick up). Thus one of 
the main development tasks to be done now seems to be to develop a high level 
and easy to use markers API for OSM.

The code is rather messy at the moment - since there is limited documentation 
on the OpenLayers API, I've just tried to do the best I can with it. However 
if this fits in with the plans of where OSM is going, I can try to wrap up 
the code so it's easier for developers to use. This may mean working with the 
openlayers people.

One other thing I've done is abstracted away the projection code, so that, for 
example, with one line of code difference, the markers layer will work with 
the Google projection used in the new slippy map, and the OSGB projection.

Any thoughts? Would Mapstraction come into this maybe?

Nick