[Xastir] Xastir with offline maps

[Lee Bengston]

On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 11:05 PM, Tom Russo <russo at bogodyn.org> wrote:
>> I have Maryland and Virginia, so I tried just selecting Maryland and
>> de-selecting the online-mapnick and the map loaded in 27 seconds on an
>> Intel Atom based computer (Acer Revo).  Did you have all 50 states
>> selected?  I think it will load everything in that case even if you
>> are only looking at Rhode Island.
>
> No, that's not what it does.  Every shapefile has a bounds recorded in it,
> and Xastir saves an index of those bounds.  It only reads and attempts to
> display a file if the bounds overlap the display.

Good. I should have selected both MD and VA and checked to see if
there was any difference vs. just MD.

>> Hmm, I don't understand the black background.  I get a grey
>> background.  A screenshot is here:
>> http://www.175moonlight.com/xastir/xastir-screenshot1-osm-shapefile.png
>> The map is definitely not as nice as the mapnik rendering, but it's functional.
>
> I agree --- I use shapefile maps even without base raster layers all the time,
> and while they're not beautiful, they are quite functional for a mobile,
> emergency service use.  The background color *is* configurable via the
> menu (Map->Configure->Background Color).  I thought it defaulted to grey.  I
> often change it to something else depending on the type of shapefile maps
> I'm using without a raster base layer.

When I have a computer in the car, I limit looks at the map to a quick
glances when driving.  I have found that the OSM shapefiles with the
decent contrast between main roads against the background combined
with Xastir's text on black background feature make it very easy to
recognize local areas as well as stations including my own.  Other
maps are nicer if I'm a passenger viewing the map in more detail, but
for a quick glance, some of the fancier maps are actually harder to
use - particularly picking out the station symbols and text against a
multi-colored background.

Lee - K5DAT