[OSM-dev] Automating Freemap tile rendering

[Nick Whitelegg]

Hello Steve and Nick,

Now I'm getting Freemap tiles (for anyone else reading this: OSM tiles 
geared for the countryside with SRTM contours) produced using Mapnik , I 
have one or two questions:

Firstly, is there scope for them to be integrated on the main OSM slippy 
map as an option?

Secondly, at the moment, for testing purposes I'm using the dev server and 
the live API. However for real working tile generation I see two options. 
One is to use planet.osm on the dev server, generating tiles on demand and 
caching them for a month or until next requested (whichever is the greater 
time period). Would this be acceptable or would this use up too much in 
the way of resources on dev (which is quite stretched already)? There 
would only be two zoom levels - 100 pixels/km and 200 pixels/km.

The other option is a "freemap at home" approach but this would require that 
users are able to install Mapnik on their home machines. How easy have 
people found this?

Let me know what you think,
Nick