[Talk-GB] Map styles and map servers (not really the Rossendale Way any more)

[Andy Townsend]

On 24/01/2022 19:01, Mark Goodge wrote:
>
>
>> In the absence of support for regional layers at osm.org I suspect 
>> that any "England and Wales rights of way map" isn't going to be 
>> available as a global map style there, but that doesn't mean that it 
>> can't be available somewhere else, and people can't advertise its 
>> existence in other internet forums.
>>
>> In terms of functionality, what do you believe is required, and would 
>> you be willing to help create it?
>
> What I'd like, to begin with, is a UK style that follows generally 
> accepted UK mapping conventions (eg, roads having colours that reflect 
> signage, and having a distinction between motorways and dual 
> carriageways rather than lumping them all into "grade separated"). If 
> that could show right of way information as well that would be great, 
> but if not then an alternate style which does would be my next option.
>
>> The financial running cost per month of any such site isn't a huge 
>> amount*, and nor is server maintenance time** - it's people taking 
>> the time to define what _they_ think is needed and then implement it 
>> themselves that is missing.
>
> The cost isn't the issue, a least to begin with (I'm not sure how well 
> it scales under load, and what the implications would be for that). I 
> have looked at running my own OSM tileserver, and from a sysadmin 
> perspective, there's nothing prohibitive about that. But the styling 
> is another issue; I've had a look at OSM Carto and, frankly, it makes 
> my head hurt even trying to comprehend it. The Switch2OSM 
> documentation itself isn't particularly complimentary about Carto, 
> describing it as a compromise and complicated. 

I suspect that I might have written that bit :)

When Richard set up the switch2osm site initially there was discussion 
about what map style would be best to feature.  My recollection (and I 
could be wrong because it was all a _very_ long time ago) was that he 
favoured a simpler style that users could modify easily such as the old 
OSM Bright raster style, and I was worried that it there were enough 
issues with it (such as rendering everything with a "name" tag as that 
name on the map) that it would need significant effort to get to the 
point were we could really feature it.


> What would be really nice is if there was a "simplified Carto", that 
> beginners like myself could take as a starting point and then 
> customise, rather than trying to alter someone else's style.

If you want a _really_ simple "carto" raster map style, then 
https://github.com/SomeoneElseOSM/floodedmap might be a start. The 
business end is 
https://github.com/SomeoneElseOSM/floodedmap/blob/main/flooded.mss and 
the SQL selects are in 
https://github.com/SomeoneElseOSM/floodedmap/blob/main/project.mml .

Creating a full map style from there is a bit like a recipe starting 
"first catch your haggis", though, so although it's useful to see what 
you can do as an experiment, I'm not sure I'd recommend from starting 
from that far back.

It's also worth mentioning that there are a bunch of vector map options 
available now that weren't previously.  I'd be good to have some "soup 
to nuts" vector instructions on switch2osm.org, but there's a bit of 
work to do to do that.


>> * as an example, map.atownsend.org.uk costs me < £20 per month, so if 
>> you split the monthly running cost between a few people it's less 
>> than the price of a beer at a monthly OSM meetup.
>
> What hardware (or VM) spec is that running on?
A Hetzner CX41 (see https://www.hetzner.com/cloud ).  If you wanted to 
pay a bit less a CX31, would probably work for just GB or UK.

>
> There was some talk on this list a while back about creating a UK 
> style. But that seems to have gone quiet. I'd be interested in getting 
> involved if enough other people wanted to resurrect it.

Nick Whitelegg did some work at 
https://github.com/orgs/osmuk/repositories a few years ago now - see 
https://github.com/osmuk/website_experimental has a bit of an 
explanation.  I'm happy to help with answering questions with map styles 
etc. but can't really commit to "site development or maintenance" - but 
I bet that there are lots of people on this list who do that as a day 
job and would be more than willing to help!

Best Regards,

Andy