[mkgmap-dev] gui for areas.list ?

Fri Aug 28 19:19:26 BST 2009

On Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:40:54 +0000 (UTC), Chris Miller wrote:
> L> This sound like a lot of work for you and for algorithms while humans
> L> can perform this task with ease. So perhaps the current crude (I
> L> don't mean in an insulting way!) method might just be fine for the
> L> time being and people can fix these kind of problems easily by hand.
> L> Especially when working on areas.list files can be simplified through
> L> a (webbased perhaps) tool.
> 
> I agree with everything you say here, and a user tool will definitely
give 
> the best and most flexible results. I'd still like to try and improve the

> automated split though for a couple of reasons. I think plenty of people 
> (based on a sample size of one - myself ;)) aren't too concerned about
> where 
> the borders are, but would appreciate tiles that hold as much information

> as possible without breaking mkgmap or introducing other problems.
> Currently 
> the tiles vary a lot in what they contain, plus figuring out the right
> --max-nodes 
> threshold involves a bit of trial and error. The better the automated
> split, 
> the less post-processing that is required. Plus, it's an interesting
> challenge 
> to work on :)
>
Agreed, it would be totally awesome to have a density map thing and 1st
time correct tile size determination.

>>> How about splitting those red areas in half again (taking care with the

> alignment), rather than just getting rid of the areas completely?
> 
> L> Or do you mean to have splitter split those problem areas again by
> L> feeding *only* that problem area and a very low --max-nodes
> L> parameter? Because that is a solution that I did not think about
> L> before. I just run splitter once a week on 2 halves of the planet and
> L> if tiles fail then that's it...
> 
> That would certainly do what you want - it would give you a more balanced

> split than Excel because it takes node distribution into account, plus it

> would handle the alignment problem for you. It would even be possible to 
> automate this though I'm not sure it's worth the extra complexity of the 
> splitter in terms of both code and command line parameters.
> 
I'm building the maps using a CLI php script so I can use that to call
splitter again to redo the failed areas. Shouldn't be a big deal, it's just
something that I never though about.