[mkgmap-dev] Distributing TYP file sources with mkgmap

Wed Jul 25 20:29:56 BST 2012

On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 11:08:03PM +0200, Jaromír Mikeš wrote:
>mkgmap has compiler now so it can be distributed even in txt format.  
>It can be maybe easier for maintaining.
>http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mkgmap/help/typ_compile

Yes, the reason to write yet another translator was to have a free (as 
in speech) implementation, and to have the TYP file sources in a 
friendly format for a version control system. (Version control systems 
usually work by generating line-by-line diffs between revisions. The 
diagnostics (say, "svn diff" or "svn blame" cannot work well with binary 
blobs.)

>I even think that later there could be more TYP file for different 
>usages.

Sure. Now, just go ahead and write some TYP files. :-) Or ask the 
maintainers of existing TYP files to license the files.

Note that unlike the style files which are merely translation rules, the 
TYP files are copied to the output. This probably means (I am not a 
lawyer) that the copyright license of the TYP file should be compatible 
with the rest of the input files (usually, an OpenStreetMap extract). If 
a TYP file source were licensed as GPL, it would probably be too 
restrictive. (You would have to accompany each copy of the map with the 
GPL license text and a copy of the TYP file source, or a written offer 
for the source.) The TYP file source license should be somewhat more 
liberal, I guess. Maybe CC0 or even PD?

	Marko