[mkgmap-dev] highway shields in label occasionally dropped

Wed Nov 4 10:51:04 GMT 2009

Hi,
I found  that at some of the ways (which have a filled REF-field) the 
highway-symbol is dropped and only the content of "REF" is shown.
some examples(i used r1344). I write "_" instead of "real" spaces just 
to make it easier to read:
if
"B" is given the result is "B"
"B1" instead results in  "~[0x06]B1"     (where ~[0x06] represents the 
highway shield)
"_B_" surprisingly  ends up in "~[0x06]_B_"
"BW" results in "BW"
"BW1" results in "BW1"
"B_W1" results in "~[0x06]BW1"
"BW;1 " results in "~[0x06]BW;1"
"BW_1" results in "~[0x06]BW1"  (ok, afaik intermediate spaces has to be 
removed, otherwise only the first part is visible in highway shield)

I (like also people do in OSM database i saw) use the REF in combination 
with the highway shield also as marker for trails (in hiking/biking 
overlays) and therefore this behaviour disturbs.

I have looked in the code and found  in the HighwaySymbolFilter.java  
this "alpha_balance" which is the reason for.
Simply changing "return value" to "return prefix + value" stops this.

Looking at the examples, the results of the filter is a bit strange to 
me. I can't get the intention.
Do we really need this filter ?

cheers Gert