[OSM-talk] "Crudely-drawn pint glasses"

[David Earl]

On 30/01/2008 08:56, Tom Hughes wrote:
> In message <fnpda4$vuc$1 at ger.gmane.org>
>         Gervase Markham <gerv-gmane at gerv.net> wrote:
> 
>> matthew-osm at newtoncomputing.co.uk wrote:
>>
>>>> Asking them to install and configure their own copy of Mapnik seems 
>>>> somewhat unreasonable...
>>> You could try osmps, and then convert the PostScript to the
>>> required format. 
>> Mapnik was just an example; it seems to me that asking people who want 
>> to make and use a "custom" map (although I'm not sure that "no 
>> crudely-drawn pint glasses" really counts as "custom") to install _any_ 
>> rendering software seems sub-optimal.
> 
> So it is reasonable or optimal for us to maintain an infinite number
> of custom maps for third parties that want custom maps but don't want
> the hassle of rendering them?

How about a bit of positive thinking here!

(And the thrust of the message wasn't about the quality of the icon either)

I think Gervase is quite right - installing anything is vast overkill 
and our kinds of install are beyond the capabilities of the majority of 
people who when I say "start your browser" don't understand what I 
mean(*). And the web offers opportunities for customizable presentation 
that paper maps don't have. We just don't have the means to do it right now.

Doing this doesn't mean necessarily generating every combination of 
tiles possible. Overlays with switches to turn on and off categories and 
particular POIs would make it possible, and there are several ways of 
doing that. (I outlined one some time ago, which would involve 
implementing HTML tiles to openlayers and using style sheet changes to 
turn on and off features in the overlay).

Anther solution would be on-demand mapping: the renderers, in whatever 
falvour, are online somewhere and you go through a dialogue to decide on 
an area, choose your features and then get a custom map back a short 
while later - either on screen or as a PDF or whatever.

I'm sure there's plenty of other ways of approaching the problem as 
well. If you want a 'clean' map, you might as well just use Google at 
the moment; our advantage is that we have much more information, if only 
we could selectively present it easily in a fast, 
non-technically-demanding way.

David


(*) remember we are a highly technologically oriented bunch. My 
experience is that most people know what "Internet Explorer" is but 
don't know it is a browser or that other browsers exist - that's just an 
example of course. (two more from our home page that confuse people - 
lack of a search button to press when you've finished entering your 
search term, and the word "permalink").