[maemo-developers] QT map widget

[From: Till Harbaum]

Hi,


----- original Nachricht --------
> I should add that I totally agree with the goal here. The question is 
> whether it would be better to decide exactly what we want (in terms of 
> features, hw accelerated rendering, etc.) and write something new, or to 
> modify an existing piece of code.
Exactly that's why i am asking here instead of just start coding like i did with
maep. That approach wasn't successful.

> Would a wiki page be useful to determine people's wishes for such a 
> widget? Just thinking off the top of my head there are things like:
Sure. But there's one thing we really need to make sure: We need to 
prevent this from becoming one of those projects that are discussed
in every detail without anyone actually doing some work.

So perhaps a wiki page make sense, sure. But a garage project with
mailing list may be more suitable to keep people interested. 

> Multiple map sources. Would that include things that are available but 
> not necessarily fully legal e.g. Google maps - at least it should 
> provide a way for third parties or users to enable such things?
I get frequent requests for user configurable map sources for maep.
There are e.g. nice topo maps for finland. Integrating these into the
main branch imho doesn't make much sense as these are only 
interesting for people in finland. I propose some xonfiguration scheme
that can be extended just by downloading additional config files from
the repositories. Installing "finland topo maps" would then enable
those maps in all apps using this widget.

> What about deciding what sorts of local POI lookups, routing, traffic 
> info, etc. might be wanted, and whether it should/can come from online 
> or local vector map data (e.g. OSM), or even RDS ;) and how these should 
> be provided.
It sure has to be discussed what the widget will provide by itself. These are
technical things like GPS integration as well as features like track and waypoint
support. I'd say: Technical support for these very common items should
be there as e.g. nearly all apps will want to draw something onto the map.
It's still to be discussed if even specific waypoint sources should be included
into the main map widget. E.g. why should a user be bothered with speed
cams in a program displaying bell towers on a map? On the other hand,
any program displaying places is intended to be used to get to those places,
so navigation may make sense.

Also support for very different map types like pre-rendered tiles as well as
vector maps sounds great. The finish topo maps would then be a config
option for the tile based map renderer.

> Overlays are another important point - this was a stumbling block for 
> Maemo-mapper for a long time iirc.
Yes, overlays are very important, even the option for arbitrary ones as
you probably won't be able to predict all use cases. I e.g. always wanted
to be able to overlay semi-transparent altitude-maps as this would e.g.
give some 3d like effect even for google maps.

Till