[OSM-talk] "OSMBabel" - a universal OSM-to-other-formats application

[Nick Whitelegg]

Been thinking a bit more about the issue of renderers, together with the 
issues raised in the SoC Keele meeting regarding a desire for availability 
of OSM data in other formats, e.g. shapefile or pdf.

I'm wondering whether the best way forward would  be to develop a 
universal OSM-to-other-formats application, kind of like GPSBabel in the 
sense that it would aim to support a wide range of output formats. It 
could either be run as a command-line application, or as a web app through 
CGI, and could read in OSM format XML or a read-only version of the OSM 
database. It could use a Map Features-based look-and-feel config file such 
as the osmarender rules file.

Such an app could have a wide range of uses e.g.

- as an image server in a "slippy" renderer
- ability to generate maps in a wide range of formats e.g PDF, PNG
- ability to generate Polish-format files for import to a GPS device
- ability to generate shapefiles or other formats used by third-party 
applications

etc.

Thoughts?

Nick