[maemo-developers] QT map widget

[From: Till Harbaum / Lists]

Hi,

Am Freitag 11 Juni 2010 schrieb Marijn Kruisselbrink:
> You might also want to look at the marblewidget (http://edu.kde.org/marble/). 
> As far as I know it can be built without any kde dependency, and is pretty 
> powerful.

I did. On the n900 as well as on the linux desktop. While i really think this
is great for desktops i also think that it isn't the right thing for mobile
devices. There are several issues:

- It is big and installs ~10MB data
- It is pretty complex and doesn't really fit on the small screen
- It takes several seconds to load
- It runs pretty slow

I do understand why people like it, really. But i think the latter two issues
are show stoppers. People just won't accept that adding simple map to their
programs will cause it to run slow. 

I have read that poeple are working on the speed issue. But speed alone isn't
the problem. More important is battery consumption as those apps tend to
be used for a longer period of time. And you wouldn't just have to make it run
fast, you'd have to make it run fast without imposing a significant CPU load.

Thus i think this whole 3D approach, as cool as it is, doesn't suit the mobile
world. All the trigonometrics involved in 3D and the additional CPU load required
for proper image stretching/scaling imho doesn't justify the battery drain this
will cause.

Or am i mistaken and the Marble widget can be switched into some fast and
low-CPU 2D mode?

Till