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Support for other Mapsites
by eduo - Apr 14th 2003 09:28:12
Hello!
This little app is great. I wish I could use it outside the
US.
Is there plans for other mapping sites to be added? I
know this is a too-broad request. I'd really just like one
of the european-supporting mapsites to be added
(mapblast, or expedia, or mapquest) or is there any
inherent limitation in those sites that would make it
difficult for the program to interpret the maps? (I don't
know about the US Census data, it may be harder if this
data was vector-based instead of bitmap-based like in
the common mapsites).
Also. I use a small 12" MacOSX G4 laptop when on the
road. Are there plans to make this app run native in it?
Could it be done and added to the current fork or should
a new fork be done for it?
Thanks for a great little app.
Eduo
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Re: Support for other Mapsites
by Pascal Martin - Apr 15th 2003 23:37:03
The main issue here is that no european country makes the data available.
Really unfortunate.
The web sites (mapblast, mapquest, ..) provide images
of maps built on request from a street database. The US
census bureau provides the database (vector data), so
RoadMap can generate the map on the fly. The map is
not moved: it is totally recreated each time from a
database that has been optimized for that purpose.
Having the map database allows for things that are
impossible with map images: retrieve the location of a given address,
identify the current street using the GPS coordinates, announce the next
intersection (soon available :), etc..
These features are the reason why I decided not to
use a moving map software, but make my own.
Considering that MacOS X is a unix and that the GUI code in RoadMap has
been kept isolated, I believe a port is possible without a fork.
I am more than ready to incorporate a native MacOS
version of the GUI. I just don't have a Mac myself.
If you feel inclined for such a port, please feel free
to do so, do not hesitate to call me for help if needed.
--
Pascal Martin
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Re: Support for other Mapsites
by Pascal Martin - Apr 15th 2003 23:50:34
In my previous post, I forgot one additional detail regarding MacOS X:
The roadmap maps are small endian, while I believe the Mac is a big endian
machine.
There is support for small endian operations in the PowerPC architecture,
so it might be useful to investigate if there is a C compiler that provides
any support for it.
The maps are all mapped as shared memory (mmap()), so the MacOS mapping
option should be investigated as well.
The alternative is to generate the maps on MacOS, i.e. 2 sets of maps:
small endian for PCs and big endian for Mac.
--
Pascal Martin
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Any plans for GPS navigation?
by Marcus - Feb 1st 2003 00:39:32
Are there any plans to include GPS navigation into the program?
In connection with gpsd that shouldn't be too hard and it should also be
possible to add some routing algorithms.
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Re: Any plans for GPS navigation?
by Pascal Martin - Feb 1st 2003 20:21:48
I do have plans to add GPS navigation to RoadMap. This was the initial
goal. It takes a lot of time to make a good map viewer, and this is the
basis for navigation. In addition I learned some lessons about file formats
and organization, especially regarding modularity. I want the maps to be
extensible, so that I can limit the disk (or flash) space by choosing what
I want to see on the maps. I also want to add some plugin and helper
application capability, so that the navigation calculation module can be
kept separate.
--
Pascal Martin
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Contact
by Brandon Beattie - Oct 9th 2002 14:39:17
First, I'd like to say that this program is wonderful, granted there are
some bugs but it's alpha/beta right now. I would like to contribute to
this project and begin work for adding code for QT. As much as I think GTK
is great, most Linux PDA's use QT libraries. The author needs to give out
a way of contacting him in the source, rather than just his name, or
atleast e-mail me brandons_mail(at)yahoo(dot)com so I can get the newer
development code. Also, it may be worthwhile to put this into sourceforge.
Vector based maps are really the best way to go for embedded/small
footprint systems, and there is a lot of potential for this program, but
having QT support is greatly needed too.
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