[OSM-talk] New technology ...

Kai Krueger kakrueger at gmail.com
Mon Jul 22 00:28:20 UTC 2013


lsces wrote
> Kai Krueger wrote:
>> One question would therefore be, what functionality of osm.org would you
>> hope to actually be able to use on a mobile phone?
> 
> Browsing the map to see if an alternate route might be better. Not knowing
> where 
> one is scale wise, the old scale bar provides an easy and quick to read
> and one 
> can judge if you need to zoom out a lot or a little. But basic functions
> for 
> using the map need to be simple.

On Firefox for android, Android stock browser and Chrome for Android I see
the scale bar clearly at the bottom that tells me much better what the scale
is than the zoom scale bar. Opera for Android partially obscures the scale
bar with the lower menu. If you don't see the scale bar on your phone, then
that probably is a bug somewhere and should be fixed.


lsces wrote
> Currently I'm only seeing the top 4 new right hand buttons, and I can't
> read the 
> scale at all which is why I've reverted to my own viewer, but the main
> thing 
> here is that you CAN'T use multiple fingers while driving! So the viewing 
> arrangement I'm looking at - from a SAFETY point of view - is one that can
> be 
> controlled just by prodding with one finger.

Osm.org is not designed to be used while driving and you really shouldn't be
using it while driving, as you quite rightfully state it is not safe to use.
The cartography of the OSM.org tiles are also not in anyway appropriate for
reading the map while driving. I mean you wouldn't stick a paper map on your
windscreen either and try and use it to navigate as a driver?

If you are trying to use it for driving (as a driver), use one of the
sat-nav apps like OsmAnd, Mapfactor Free, NavMII free, Skobbler, or the
various other options that exist for android and other mobile platforms. If
those apps give you wrong directions and you need to find your own
alternative route, then you will have to pull to the side and stop while
re-orienting, or give the phone to a passenger that has hands free and can
direct you.

This is not (and will never be) the job of osm.org and so it imho isn't a
valid use case to optimize the UI of osm.org for. It is probably not even
legal to operate your phone this way while driving. 


lsces wrote
> Note that I'm not saying that the main map should change - this is mobile 
> technology use, but personally I WOULD like to have the option to select
> the old 
> style layout. It's not fundamental to how the map works - it's only a
> style 
> sheet, and we could have several - including mobile centric ones?

It is quite a lot of work to keep multiple options working, tested and in
sync. As there is a shortage of developers for the main website already
anyway and one needs to prioritize what can be achieved, this seems rather
low on the priority list. Perhaps in the future someone will submit a patch
to implement something like Wikipedia's user styles which might solve some
of your issues. 

Well, actually, there are already different styles as part of the CSS for
mobile and printers to optimize for different viewing patterns.

I am not a fan of just changing things to "make them prettier" without
adding functionality, or even less of "the website hasn't changed in X
years, we need to change things to make it modern" either, but having
multiple versions beyond what we already have is just likely not really
feasible at the moment. There are imho more important things to fix or
optimize.


Kai



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