[mkgmap-dev] New mkgmap styles

Sat May 8 10:25:42 BST 2010

On Fri, May 07, 2010 at 07:28:28PM +0200, Clinton Gladstone wrote:
>The problem with the TYP files is that the family and product IDs have
>to match that of the map being generated.

Oh, right, I missed that. If only someone wrote an open source TYP file 
generator that processes text files. I still do have the plan to write 
something in Perl or GNU Assembler.

>Therefore, I would suggest that you think about distributing your TYP
>file, potentially with the style files, but note that users will have
>to adjust the name and IDs when they generate their own maps.

Preferrably I would distribute just the source files (a Perl script or 
GNU assembler input, and the script to drive the translation).  For now, 
I plan to distribute the TYP file, outside mkgmap.

Even the "routes" style is somewhat useable without a TYP file. It is 
merely confusing to look at the map when the public transportation 
routes are displayed as boundaries on top of a map that already has 
administrative boundaries between suburbs.

>(And by the way, thanks for taking the initiative on this. Last year I
>created a test public transportation layer, but have not had time to
>document or distribute what I did.)

No problem, I find public transportation second best to human-powered 
transportation (walking&bicycling), and want to serve this important 
audience too.  I am open to any suggestions you might have, such as 
differentiating different modes of rail transportation.  Currently 
trams, railway, subway are shown in the same line style, and subway 
routes are shown even where they are underground.

The POIs for the stops are in the default style, because I think that 
someone who knows the city doesn't need the "routes" layer most of the 
time, but will still find it useful to search for stops. I think that 
the "routes" layer should only show lines.

One problem with route relations is a limitation of the current "apply" 
command in the relations style file. It would be nice to apply the 
relations in a sorted order (by ref or name) and to filter out 
duplicates. If you have a bus route split in two relations (one per 
direction), you will see the bus line ref twice on ways that are used in 
both route directions. Likewise for stops that are used for both route 
directions (the start and end stops, at least). I posted a patch as the 
base of discussion some time ago, but nobody replied. This is not just 
about bus or train routes, but about any route relations.

Best regards,

	Marko