[Xastir] OSM offline

[James Ewen]

On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 12:27 PM, Jason KG4WSV <kg4wsv at gmail.com> wrote:

> on the other hand, a shapefile is just data, no software, and it can
> be downloaded to a system and have complete mapping support without an
> internet lifeline, _and_ dbfawk is 100% internal to xastir, no extra
> software to locate/build/install.

The OSM data is just data, no software, and it can be downloaded to a
system, and have complete mapping support without an internet
lifeline. Dbfawk requires software to interpret the dbfawk file.

You're comparing apples to apples. Both shapefile and OSM data has to
be acquired, and stored on the local drive in order to be completely
self contained. Both shapefiel and OSM data needs to be passed through
rendering rules in order for the software (Xastir or Merkaartor) to
know how to display the data on screen.

> Whereas Merkaartor appears, at first glance, to have a non-trivial
> chance at being a typical FOSS descent into dependency hell.  And
> apparently all it does is edit, so you'd need something else to
> actually _render_ the images and feed the raster data to xastir?

It's a pretty small program, grab it and give it a try...
http://www.merkaartor.be/
Or just look at the image on that page. The map displayed in the
middle of the page is rendered internally by Merkaartor from raw OSM
data. I can save the raw data to my hard drive, and while sitting on
the Moon start Merkaartor, and have it render that same image from raw
data.

Here are a couple more screenshots:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Merkaartor/Screenshots

They show different rendering styles, as well as layered images. The
last one has a satellite photo WMS layer with OSM data overlaid.
Obviously the WMS layer is going to require an internet connection.

> Don't be too quick to disparage dbfawk because it isn't shiny. It Just Works.

It's not shiny, nor is it smooth either. It is very non-user friendly.
It takes a lot of work to dig to find out how it works, then you have
to jump through a number of hoops to learn what information is in the
DBF files, and then write some esoteric rules in gobbledy-gook to try
and make it work.

Once you have it all figured out, you get something that is somewhat acceptable.

The basic concepts between what shapefiles, dbfawk, and Xastir do to
create a map are conceptually identical, it's just that Merkaartor
does it much nicer. The user interface still takes a little bit to
figure out, but it's in a human readable format that most people would
be able to decipher without a reference manual. The output however
ends up looking very much like a real map.

If Xastir is going to stay with requiring a "pocket protector and tape
on your glasses" type of operator, it's not going to get much more
market penetration than it currently has. Sorry, but the rest of the
world likes easy to install and use, as well as pretty and shiny.

I'm not saying it's easy, and can be done overnight, but it's also not
an impossible feat.

I'm not a newbie... I have played with Linux a little bit, but there's
far too much stuff that I deal with daily that requires me to run
Windows. I hate it, and would love to leave, but that's not possible.
I'd have to convert all my company and coworkers, as well as our
upstream providers, and our downstream customers to be able to drop
Windows.

I currently have APRSISCE/32 running, and have had it up for about a
week on this computer. I don't have to shut down and reboot. I can run
it in the background, and poke and prod at it as I like. It's a simple
click to start it up. If I need to do work, I simply move to another
program.

If Xastir were able to be compiled as a native Windows application,
you'd get more people running the program.

All I am saying is that if Xastir were a little more mainstream, easy
to use, and shiny, there would be more market penetration. Obviously
with no monetary income to spur on market penetration, there's little
incentive, but at least have a look and see what you might be able to
do with Xastir...

Take it or leave it, just my two cents worth...

James
VE6SRV