[Roadster] usability, etc

[Barry Gould]

>At 05:30 PM 8/31/2005, Ian McIntosh wrote:
>Barry,
>
>You're one of a small handful of users now.  I'd love to hear your
>thoughts (good and bad) on the user interface, search functionality,
>etc.

Hi Ian,
I think it's very easy to use so far...

I've used GPSDrive and a couple of other programs, and this is MUCH 
better... faster, and has much more readable maps.

There are some minor issues with the way roads are labeled...
I'd like freeway labels to be much larger, esp. when zoomed out, and 
sometimes the labels are missing (e.g. the 60 Freeway in Ontario, 
California doesn't have a label when looking at the airport, and the 
91 and 57 don't have labels in Fullerton, CA when zoomed all the way 
out, but the I-5 has a small label). I like how Google maps repeats 
the freeway icons, although sometimes they get carried away :)

My display is 15", 1920x1200 so the fonts are quite small. They're 
readable at my desk, but I haven't tried it while in the car yet.
I think ideally it'd be nice to use the standard highway sign icons 
as labels, but I realize that may require labor from an artist, etc.
Does the Tiger data designate highways and freeways, or would you 
have to guess based on the name of the road?

Also, it'd be nice to have main roads labeled more clearly, but I'm 
guessing the Tiger data doesn't indicate which roads are larger. 
(e.g. Harbor blvd in Fullerton, CA).

I really like that all the little streets are still visible when 
zoomed out, but then again, at some point while driving, you only 
want the major ones. Again, I suppose that depends on the data.
Perhaps one could look at how long a street is, and make sure it's 
not a freeway off-ramp or whatever, but I know this could easily get 
VERY computationally expensive.
However, this could be done once and saved into the database.

When searching, some areas list the city and ZIP, e.g.
1500 Archibald
shows Ontario, CA 91761
but 100 lemon st
says
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Garden Grove
instead of "Fullerton, CA 92835"

I'm not sure if that means the data didn't import correctly, or the 
data is missing the required information, or ?

I don't currently have a GPS I can plug into my laptop while in the 
car; my GPS needs a different cable for that, so I haven't been able 
to test that aspect.

Scrolling via the keyboard would be nice...
maybe use arrow keys for minor scrolling, and PgUp, PgDown, Home, End 
for major scrolling.

Showing the map "scale" in miles or km would be nice, perhaps next to 
the zoom tool?

I haven't figured out how to mark points, but I assume that's not 
implemented yet.

How do you switch between Cairo and GDK rendering btw?

A suggestion:
get more publicity... email lwn at lwn.net when you have a new 
version announcement, and they'll list it on their weekly page. that 
should help get more people interested.

Thanks,
Barry