[OSM-talk] RoadMap development for OSM

[Paul Fox]

hi -- forgive me for only lurking for a few days before diving
in here.

i'm the (current) maintainer of the "RoadMap" project
(http://roadmap.sourceforge.net), an open source map rendering
and navigation tool.  roadmap primarily deals with maps derived
from the TIGER data, but we also have converters for the Canadian
RNF (Road Network File) data, and the ancient and inaccurate DCW
(Digital Charts of the World) data.  northern north america has
been our focus, mainly because that's where the free data has
been, and because that's where the developers live.

[ digression:  i guess maybe just a little more background on
roadmap would be in order.  roadmap can import/export GPX routes/
tracks/waypoints, can display GPX format points-of-interest files
(read-only), can do position lookup by address, etc etc.  all
with a pretty flexible UI.  that UI can be built for GTK, QT, or
the Zaurus and, with a little bit of work, for WinCE or Win32 (they're
broken right now).  the original design focus was for roadmap to
run well on resource-starved machines -- which is to say, PDAs and
handhelds.  the main codebase doesn't do auto-routing because our
data doesn't support it.  a sister project (the roadmap_editor
branch in our CVS, and the basis for the FreeMap Israel project)
_can_ do navigation, but that's because the maps are being
created on the fly (in a manner similar to OSM) by roadmap
itself.  but that's all just for background.  visit the website
for more info about our featureset. ]

what's _not_ flexible about roadmap right now is the map import
process.  roadmap renders maps that have been pre-processed into
our "rdm" format (that's short for "roadmap").  our map builder
currently contains separate modules to process TIGER, RNF, and
DCW maps -- every new map source requires a new converter.  i'm
sure the developers on OSM appreciate this problem, in addition
to the problem of finding sources of free maps to convert in the
first place.

which is why i'm writing.  :-)

it seems like there's room for some synergy between roadmap and OSM.
    
    - i'd love to see roadmap be able to render maps from the OSM
	database.  i'm already thinking about how we can do this.

    - the US Census bureau is going to be changing the way the
	tiger maps are distributed, switching to a shapefile format.
	we'll need a new converter, and, i imagine, so will OSM.

    - we can't do auto-navigation without map meta-data that
	supports it (i.e.  the one-way, no-left-turn, average
	speed information).  the OSM database i assume has more
	of that data.
	
in addition to being able to render OSM maps, roadmap might be
able to help in creating those maps:

    - roadmap could probably upload tracks directly to OSM --
        no intermediate browser or gpsbabel steps necessary. (our
	routes/tracks are already exportable in GPX, using code
	borrowed from gpsbabel, and there's already http access
	code in roadmap for downloading our pre-compiled maps on
	the fly.  uploading the GPX directly wouldn't be much of a
	stretch.

    - given that there's editing code in the roadmap_editor
	branch, perhaps that can be morphed into OSM-editing
	code.  (i don't know much about our editor, i'm afraid,
	so this may make less sense than i realize.)

    - roadmap currently has voice output (to aid in navigation).
	perhaps as a complement to this, tracks and waypoints
	could be tagged with voice recordings, which could in
	turn help with the OSM editing process.  laptops or
	PDAs with builtin cameras could similarly tag tracks
	directly with pictures.

i'm sure this list could be longer, but that's plenty for now --
just tossing ideas in the air.  i'd certainly welcome more
discussion and ideas about things we could implement specifically
to help roadmap and OSM take advantage of one another.  and, of
course, i'd welcome help in implementing them.  ;-)

unfortunately, roadmap has suffered recently from a lack of
developers -- we've had some turnover, and we've got the
two-branch (trunk vs. roadmap_editor) split, and what we're left
with is a lot of room for people to help.  (okay -- full
disclosure:  i'm really the only one doing much work on the
roadmap main branch right now.  i could use a break, and some
help.)  i've been pretty busy recently finally getting version
1.1.0 out -- our first release in almost two years -- but now i
have time to think more about the future.

thanks, and hope something comes of this!

paul
=---------------------
 paul fox, pgf at foxharp.boston.ma.us (arlington, ma, where it's 62.2 degrees)