[mkgmap-dev] Cutting down the default style

Wed Nov 9 06:59:40 GMT 2011

On Tue, Nov 08, 2011 at 04:58:40PM -0500, Greg Troxel wrote:
>I don't understand how we can be talking about "default style" and 
>"multi-layer map" at the same time.  It would seem that the default 
>style should support a map that is broadly useful to all people in all 
>circumstances (a tall order).

Making the default style modular could be a mere refactoring change at 
first. It does not need to have any end-user visible effects.

>It may be that we end up with a rural and and urban default style, and 
>people have to choose.

If we split the default style so that it imports a number of substyle 
definitions, then it would be easy to introduce and maintain an 'urban' 
or 'sparse' style: it would just import a small number of the substyles 
that the default style is based on.

>A multi-layer map with selectable elemnts is a reason to change the 
>default style to simple when the out-of-the-box mkgmap can process the 
>files multiple times, make transparent layers according to a 
>(supplied!) config file, and then merge the results multiple layers 
>into one .img (and make multiple .gmapi/windows).  It doesn't seem we 
>are there yet.

Right. The refactoring of the default style would be only a first step 
on a long path.

Based on what Felix told us, we would probably also need to provide 
end-users with a simple way of converting multiple .img files to a 
single gmapsupp.img, so that users of old and new devices can make use 
of the map layers.

	Marko