[mkgmap-dev] Preprocessing OSM for mkgmap

Fri Feb 5 23:09:31 GMT 2010

I'm afraid I've fallen a few weeks behind on this mailing list, so
apologies if I'm not aware of related development.  I know the style
branch is attempting to address some of the issues.

I got frustrated with setting tags based on existing tags, problems with
re-ordering, and having to re-specify long expressions for slightly
different results.  Instead of moaning, I've done something about it,
and created a geographical-tag manipulator, or geotagman for short.

It's hosted on SourceForge, and you can read about it on its Wiki
page[1].  It's mostly complete, though I'm still clearing up one or
two missing features before it can claim parity with mkgmap itself.  The
advantage is that we can separate out the knocking into shape of our OSM
data from its presentation as a Garmin map, which I think has to be a
Good Thing.  And it could be useful for other OSM users, too.

[1] <URL: http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/geotagman/wiki/Geotagman >

If anyone else is interested in putting it through its paces, it can be
accessed via SVN[2] (only, until it reaches beta-release stage).  I'd
really appreciate feedback from users, and offers of help from people
good at writing docs and/or working with SourceForge (which I've not
used before).  Also anyone able to help with portability issues.

[2] <URL: https://geotagman.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/geotagman/trunk >

Just to entice you, here's some of what it offers:

* Supports exact or case-insensitive match, or regular expression
* Add, set, remove tags, just like mkgmap
* Regular expression replacement
* Unit conversion (e.g. any length to metres, or mph to km/h)
* Written in XSLT, with (optional, recommended) extensions in Perl
* Perl wrapper for convenience
* XML format with DTD, so easily editable
* Simple, nested syntax for matching
* Automated unit-test (developer feature!)

Final question with this - am I on the right lines, or just heading off
into hyperspace?