[Roadster] state of the roadster

[William E Reid]

Ian McIntosh wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
> 
> Update time.
> 
> First, personal: I am still in South America, but perhaps more settled
> now.  I would very much like to continue working on Roadster.
> 
> Up until this point, Roadster has had only a few people working on it.
> If Roadster is going to be a success, it'll take many more people
> contributing.
> 
> So, this is a call for help!  This mailing list has 70+ subscribers now,
> and I'm hoping there are some people here who want to get involved.
> 
> In addition to bringing more people in, I'd like to reduce the scope of
> the project for version 1.0.
> 
> Version 1.0 feature proposal
> ============================
> 1) move map data loading (and rendering?) functionality to an external
> library (libroadster?)
> 
> 2) external library will use a better (faster/smaller) data format (no
> more MySQL GIS) stored in a SQLite database

Personally I will be happy to see this go.....

> 
> 3) ability to zoom from street level to state/country level *quickly*
> (which probably means storing data at several levels-of-detail)
> 
> 4) a new GUI in a high level language (C#, Ruby, Python?) with only
> basic map navigation functionality (mouse drag, edge scroll, zoom
> buttons, zoom rect tool, history back/forward buttons)
> ============================
> 
> I see this as a solid base for more advanced functionality, and we can
> decide later where it should be added (in the application, in the
> library, or as an application plugin).
> 
> At that point, multiple frontends could be developed independently using
> native toolkits (GTK+, QT, Cocoa, Win32).

Having a good base would be great.  Having the ability for a different 
front end would great.  How bout a web front end for instance :)

libroadster sounds more appealing to me.

I put my vote in for some of  the raster and vector formats that gdal 
has to offer.  At least one standard of each would be really nice to 
have support in roadster, so data can be layered easily.  I don't know 
if this is the appropriate time to mention such things...


Whatever happens. I am sure it will be great.  I think trimming the 
focus is always good.  I have been a little overwhelmed at times messing 
with roadster and despite it's good looks, have not played with it in a 
while because of it.

-=Bill


> 
> So that's the vision.  What do you think??
> 
> -Ian
> 
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