[Merkaartor] Alternative, simpler GPX track appearance

[Yves Goergen]

Currently GPX tracks are mainly displayed with their track points/nodes
and a thin line between them. The colour of that line is either red or
green or something in between, according to the vertical movement of the
track - as far as I could see it from the code. (IIRC the line is also
dashed, I haven't seen it for a while.)

I see two 'misconceptions' with this. Please somebody correct me if I'm
wrong or don't see the reason behind it.

* Who needs the nodes? They are not anyhow related to certain points of
interest, usually. They are recorded from a configured pattern of time
or location. There's a node each n seconds or metres. When
walking/driving around with my GPS device, I'm not interested in the
technical details of recording the track, but only the track itself.

* Who needs the "slope"? Is it of any use to know whether a track was
going up- or downwards? When walking, the speed is too slow to get
accurate elevation measurements, even with today's top consumer GPS
receivers. When driving, elevation doesn't matter that much and is
usually more averaged (vehicles cannot go too steep). The line is also a
bit too thin to recognise it well between the other map details or on a
background image. Red lines and green areas also appear relatively often
in a map editor's window.

So here's my proposal: Ignore the nodes, draw a thicker line, use a more
distinct colour. My attached patch entirely disables displaying the GPX
nodes and disables parts of the slope/colour code. Instead, a thicker
line is used (in low zooms still a bit zoom-dependent) and the colour is
always cyan (much like in Google Maps/Earth, who use a shade of blue and
also a thicker line). I could work much better with this representation
than with Merkaartor's current.

Since I expect there are people who like the nodes and thin lines
better, I'd suggest to add this altered appearance only as an option.
(My preference is still to enable it by default, since I also expect
those people be the minority.) My patch doesn't include the option and
preferences part yet.

What do you think about it?

-- 
Yves Goergen "LonelyPixel" <nospam.list at unclassified.de>
Visit my web laboratory at http://beta.unclassified.de
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