[OSM-newbies] Rendered two ways; why?

[Steve Dobson]

Hi James

On 14/06/10 06:02, James Ewen wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 10:23 PM, Steve Dobson<steve at dobbo.org>  wrote:
>
>>>> Surely what is needed is a way of internationalising the symbology in
>>>> OSM (and JOSM, ...).  I would like to see the symbols that I am already
>>>> familiar and I expect that others would too.
>>>
>>> I would like to see familiar signage as well... but my familiar
>>> signage doesn't look like yours.
>>
>> My point in a nutshell.
>
> Well, you've said the exact opposite above. You are talking about
> localizing, not internationalizing.

No, I was talking about modifying software so it will support multiple 
regions/locales without the need for further modifications.  Sorry if I 
wasn't clear.  That is what I have always understood i18n to be about - 
and it appears that Wikipedia guys do too [1].  Of course we could both 
be wrong.  :-)

>> Surly the best method would be to use a look-up table.  Each user could
>> then pick the signs that they want.  Why shouldn't a Yankee mapping in
>> Holland have signs that she is familiar with?   OSM could default based
>> on the browsers' language settings, but allow customisation on the
>> user's preference page.
>
>  From my understanding, there are only a couple main map tile servers
> out there. To be able to do what you desire, one would need to set up
> a map server of each type for each localization. I don't think we're
> there yet. Maybe in the future.

I don't see why different tile servers are required.  One could have a 
version of the tile for each symbol set.  That is a disk size issue to 
me, not a multiple server issue, and disk space these days is cheap.

I doubt that the render time would be that much worse with modern 
computing power.  One first generates the base tile sans symbols and 
then applies the appropriate symbols to that base in turn.  I am 
assuming here that the symbols are the last layer, which they do appear 
to be on most map systems I've looked at.

>> With jOSM (Java) it is even simpler as the java.util.ResourceBundle
>> class allows object to be returned not just text, and most programming
>> languages have internationalisation methods that could be used I'm sure.
>
> Yup, that can probably be done without too much fuss, but it's not
> going to make the Mapnik or Osmarender tiles look any different.

I haven't looked at either Mapnik or Osmarendar but I can't believe that 
it would be that difficult to modify they tile rendering code to go 
though a look-up table.  It is, after all, a very common computer technique.

Steve

[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization