[mkgmap-dev] Style include files (Was: Suggestions)

Tue Dec 8 22:27:07 GMT 2009

Hi Mark,

On Tue, Dec 08, 2009 at 09:25:17PM +0000, Mark Burton wrote:
> 
> Hello Peter & Suzie
> > 2. This may be able to be done already but I could not see how,
> > currently I use my own style files to create the output I desire but
> > every time a new feature is added the the default ones I need to get
> > that and add to all my style sets or reapply my changes to the default
> > ones.
> > It would be good to have the ability to create a set of overide style
> > files that only contain things that are to be changed from the default
> > style you are using and some type of marker so some default ones can
> > be deleted.
> > 
> > Are they worth me looking at?
> 
> Perhaps, but given that a lot of people use radically different style
> files from the default, it may not be taken up by the hard-core
> stylers? Don't know, just guessing.

I have understood that there is some interest in having multiple styles
in the mkgmap repository.  See for example the feedback that I got
a couple of days ago to my suggestion of translating traffic_calming=*
in the default style.

An "include file" feature for styles would help achieve having a family
of styles.  We could distribute a few styles in addition to the current
default one, e.g., for pedestrians, pedestrians who want bus route overlays,
on-road bicyclists, and motorheads who do not want to see cycleways or
footways :-).  All styles would be based on a bare-bones "core" default
style that would only display major roads, excluding some stuff like
traffic_calming=* or highway={bus_stop,service,cycleway,path,footway,steps}.

There could be a repository of user-contributed styles that could import
definitions from the default styles by reference.  How would that sound like?

Style files could even take parameters from the command line or args file.
You could for example specify --unlit_is_unpaved=true to control a
conditional feature like this:

lit=no & unlit_is_unpaved=true { set mkgmap:paved=no }

Best regards,

	Marko