[mkgmap-dev] Text format for TYP files

Fri Jan 15 20:20:55 GMT 2010

Hi Felix, all,

On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 11:39:51PM +0100, Felix Hartmann wrote:
> I use maptk: http://maptk.dnsalias.com/
> it is freeware but not OS - it is however available for Python, Linux 
> and Windows.

Thank you for the hint.  I downloaded "MapTk 2.7 Python.zip".  The software
is in .pyc files that have apparently been compiled on Windows.  The only
non-binary file is MapTk.pyw, which requires python-tk and Tcl/Tk to run.
I decompiled and compiled one simple TYP file (two line styles) that I had
created with http://ati.land.cz/gps/typdecomp/.  It was 2 bytes shorter
than before, even though the string "MapTk 2.7\0" was appended to the end.
That is, some things were possibly lost in the conversion.  It could be
harmless, such as representing the lines with fewer bits per pixel
(I used 2 colors even though it was declared as 4-colour).

> This is the most reliable TYP-File editor/compilor for me. It supports 
> in text editing and also exporting to genTYP format (PRJ to mapedit 
> skin). It does not support GUI night mode editing however (I think one 
> can edit nightmode in text editor).

The .prj file that was decompiled from the TYP file follows the Windows .ini
style.   The "PRJ file to MapEdit skin" produces something genTYP-like, but
it lacks some information, such as Product ID and Family ID.

I do not mind using a non-free TYP editor for now, but I would like to use
a text format that can represent every aspect of the TYP file.  Later, if
a better TYP editor is released as free software, we could convert the source
files to the format of that editor if needed.

I think that we could do with a simple text-to-TYP compiler.  I would
implement it in Java, because users are likely to have the runtime
environment installed already, for splitter, mkgmap and JOSM.

For regression testing, we could have a set of TYP source files that would
contain the MD5 checksum of the resulting binary in a comment.

What do you think?  How are you storing your TYP files, Felix?  In the
MapTk PRJ file format, or as binary files?

	Marko