[OSM-dev] What about sharing basic rendering rules and using SLD?

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

> There's no such thing as "base maps" or "special maps", just "maps".  
> Just because the standard OSM Mapnik layer doesn't have a single- 
> interest focus (as the cycle map does) doesn't mean it deserves to  
> become cluttered with whatever bonkers tag someone has voted on this  
> week.

Richard, I think you're hitting a strawman here. Stefan has never 
actually proposed to put every conceivable object on every map. 
"Remaining updated on all keys", as he said, doesn't mean that "all 
these keys" should be present on the map.

Whenever I do a custom Osmarender style, I usually start with the z17 
style sheet which contains almost "everything"; it is much more 
convenient to take that and remove everything I don't want than to start 
with, say, a z12 style and insert all the extra presentation rules I 
might need.

I understood Stefan's request to go in that direction - let us create 
rendering rules for all objects and then use them selectively to create 
the maps we want.

(That said, I don't perceive SLD as a very suitable format for handling 
OSM styles. It's just too standard.)

And another thing:
 > One of the things I like best about Steve (Chilton)'s Mapnik
 > cartography is that it doesn't try to render "all these keys".

This is not a special feature of the Mapnik cartography but of every 
single OSM cartography I've seen to date. - Just in case you were trying 
to suggest that the Osmarender guys would thoughtlessly clutter their 
maps. Which you weren't of course ;-)

By the way, the Mapnik map does render pubs on zoom levels 16 to 18 
(with names on 17 and 18), but it doesn't render restaurants. At all. On 
any zoom level. Is that negligence or maybe just "UK centricism"?

Bye
Frederik