[Xastir] Announcing tile support for OSM

[Jerry Dunmire]

Thanks for the suggestions Fred. I had noticed other applications going
with the separate update process, so I'll look into that at some point.

73,
...jerry
KA6HLD

On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 1:14 PM, Fred Hillhouse <fmhillhouse at comcast.net> wrote:
> Greetings Jerry,
>
> Even though I don't use Xastir, I follow the postings: using the OSM tiles
> is a very good thing. My hat is off to you!
>
> One of the best parts of OSM is the ability to add new data to current map
> tiles. If a road, trail or other feature is not present, add it. I have not
> explored this yet but I watch some of that activity as well and plan to help
> in the future. Another Xastir user has mentioned this as well.
>
> One item that will be useful at some point is the ability to grab to latest
> tile if there has been a change to it. In many areas the data is thin at
> best and there is a mapping community out there improving the data set which
> makes it likely that many tiles will change. The APRSISCE/32 author is
> exploring this as well.
>
> It may end up being best to have a separate application for the update
> ability rather than wrap it into Xastir. I only throw this out to generate
> thinking along the path. :)
>
> Best regards,
> Fred
>
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xastir-bounces at lists.xastir.org
>> [mailto:xastir-bounces at lists.xastir.org] On Behalf Of Jerry Dunmire
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 13:11
>> To: Xastir - APRS client software discussion
>> Subject: [Xastir] Announcing tile support for OSM
>>
>> Early this morning Curt committed my patches to add tile
>> support for OSM to the CVS tree (thanks Curt).
>>
>> Tiles are small (256x256) map sections that get assembled
>> on-the-fly to make an image that fills the xastir window.
>> Since typical xastir windows are larger than 256x256, there
>> is a small penalty for the extra http requests, but a big
>> gain in re-use. Use of tiles is the key to 'slippy map'
>> implementations in browsers and some newer apps (take a look
>> at TangoGPS for an example). Tiles also improve the OSM
>> experience with xastir, just don't expect 'slippy map' performance.
>> Xastir's strengths like in other areas.
>>
>> There is an new README file describing OSM that gives a lot
>> more details on both the static and tiled maps. Please read
>> it carefully.
>>
>> The default setup provides new OSM*.geo map description
>> files. There are a mix of tiled and static maps. You can tell
>> the difference by file name. While any of the OSM based
>> styles could be tiled, the tiles from CloudMade require an
>> access key. You have to register for at the CloudMade site to
>> get a key and then modify the appropriate GEO file.
>>
>> The biggest weakness in the present tiling implementation is
>> that a slow server, or worse one that does not respond, is a
>> real problem since for large screens you could have to wait
>> 20 or more tiles to time out before the display will refresh.
>> The ski trail version of OSM was giving me headaches with
>> timeouts yesterday- take care.
>>
>> I am working on a way to cancel the tile downloads, but since
>> most sites are responsive I don't think you will run into too
>> many problems (unless you are a skier - hi hi ).
>>
>> Tiles are separated from the standard Xastir cache so that
>> they can be shared with other OSM applications. I have
>> successfully shared tiles between Xastir and TangoGPS. See
>> the README.OSM_maps file for more details.
>>
>>  Let me know if you run into problems.
>>
>> 73,
>> ...jerry
>> KA6HLD
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