[mkgmap-dev] Binary format update

Thu Sep 16 20:17:53 BST 2010

On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 01:34:20PM -0500, Scott Crosby wrote:
>I've got a question though, why can't mkgmap generate different areas 
>in parallel? It seems like it should be possible and it would make it a 
>lot faster to render maps.

I thought that it already does, when you specify the parameter max-jobs 
(it defaults to the number of processor cores).

Another question that I have been asking is, why cannot mkgmap generate 
multiple maps (map layers) from a single map tile. Perhaps the binary 
format reduces the parsing overhead, but there still must be some.

Here is one use case: Have several map layers built from route 
relations, which can be enabled or disabled on the device as needed. 
(When you want to see bus routes, you usually don't want to see hiking 
or bicycle routes and vice versa.)

This would need a minor change to the style language (say, a directive 
identifying the layer where to generate the object) and some mapping 
between layer IDs in the style language and filenames on the command 
line.

	Marko