[OSM-dev] [OSM] Informations about osmarender for Google SoC

[Mario]

Hi Miles!

> As info, if you 
> decide to include some Inkscape integration on one of the steps, you can 
> expect to get a lot of help from the Inkscape team (Inkscape has had 3-5 
> GSoC successful students every year and the team gets quite involved).  
> 80n will be an awesome guide for you on this.

I don't know if there is enough time to do this now, because I have time 
to submit the application until March 31... and I can't spend much time 
writing and reading emails until March 27 (I have an exam...) :(

I can't manage to understand if you're proposing to collaborate with 
Inkscape community after sending the application to Google or to get in 
touch with them to submit a similar application or submit the 
application directly with them. But perhaps it's because I've slept 4 
hours this night (Formula 1, such an illness... ;)))

> I'm not sure exactly what you mean by step 1

With step 1 (the core which handles rules file) I meant the core of the 
application, like I wrote in my last email replying to Frederik. So, 
once I've analysed (with your kind help :)) the structure of XML file 
for Osmarender and what is needed for the future GUI to access as public 
methods (etc..), I can code that. In other words, all that is needed for 
the (future?) GUI to access in term of services to modify the XML 
successfully.

> but I think your steps 1 & 
> 2 could possibly be combined to form a "big picture" and task plan 
> (which you're already getting a good start on) - maybe come up with a 
> few detailed task plan alternatives (ie desktop vs web vs plugin, ...)  
> and then submit to the OSM community to get feeback.  You may not expect 
> to get total consensus but enough ideas to plunge forward in a focused 
> direction.

So, if I understood well, I should write (in the application for Google) 
some words about the different approaches that can be used to achieve 
the goal, and the first step is to analyse (more in depth) pro and cons 
of any solution and let the community discuss on that.

> Step 4: I also think a working demo is something you should plan on this 
> summer.

If your speaking about the GUI, I would like to, but I don't know if I 
can promise this to you and in the Google application, because the time 
needed depends on the single approach you/we decide to follow. And I'm 
willing to participate to do my best, not to try to manage some messing 
code just for deadlines' sake. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I do 
really prefer to be sure about what I can deliver and can promise (I 
think I will spend great part of the time getting really in touch with 
your community, learning more about the project, discussing pro and cons 
of any solution..), obviously doing my best to deliver also a GUI 
working demo (perhaps, as I've said, a sort of "skeleton" based on the 
mockups discussed with the community). Having experienced developing 
"closed source" software (working as I'm studying)... I really learnt to 
know Murphy's law :D :D

But perhaps these are only "fears", you can tell me if it could be 
achieved in time and if it's not an issue.

> And you might want to include submitting your code into a 
> development branch - that way it starts to get used under "real world" 
> conditions.  This creates a good "deliverable" for the project.

That's cool for sure :)

> btw Inkscape has a wiki or blog page for students to blog about their 
> progress - I think this is a great idea for OSM and you might mention 
> about blogging your progress in your application. 

So I must mention in the application that I will write a blog/wiki about 
my progress in OSM wiki (is there an OSM blog?). I think it's a great 
idea, I'm really agree, and I would enjoy very much doing it! (as you 
might already seen, I'm just a little bit logorrhoeic :))

The only issue I can see about this is that I'm not really sure about 
the flawlessness of my English :)) Not to mention that perhaps I should 
ask for someone to correct my application before submitting it to Google :)

Bye!

Mario