[mkgmap-dev] Short mkgmap HowTo

Sun Aug 14 17:21:15 BST 2011

On 07/30/11 15:41, WanMil wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have created a short HowTo in the wiki for first time users:
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mkgmap/How_to_create_a_map
>
> I think that's a good thing for first time users because the other wiki
> pages contain a bit too much information if you are using mkgmap for the
> first time.
>
> Please have a look on it if I have forgotten something or if something
> is wrong.

heya. i think this is a wonderful idea - a beginner-friendly page might 
be very useful, because it took me quite some time to figure out several 
things - mkgmap wiki pages (and other resources) have lots of 
contradicting, outdated or just missing information. a few suggestions 
regarding newbie page.

note that i don't claim that "somebody should do something about it", i 
offer to do this ;)
didn't want to rush in and just start to mess up things. if there are no 
objections, i could slowly change wiki pages in this direction.

1. i believe it should only list most important, simple steps - thus i'd 
remove 'tile splitter' from main requirements list and only list it when 
talking about splitting data;

2. i personally have been using osmosis to cut out regions, especially 
if i'm just going to visit one city - no need to build extra tiles, 
smaller dataset. if that is deemed to be useful, it could be linked to 
from mkgmap beginner page;

3. i'd move address search to a separate page and link to it from the 
beginner's intro - have a section "further reading" or so (and as such, 
nuke --nsis option from the default suggested ones);

4. on the beginners page, all used options should be explained - what 
they do and, especially, why would one use them. one of my biggest 
sources of frustration with mkgmap was inability to figure out what 
options do or what options to use for some functionality

4.1. --tdbfile
ok, this is a quite wonderful one - especially if we look at the help 
output of it :D
         Write a .tdb file.
i've used mkgmap to generate maps for various regions a few hundred 
times by now. i have never used this option and i have no idea what it 
does (help wasn't very... helpful). is it really useful for newbies ? 
and, not directly related to newbie guide - it might be useful to add 
some description on what that file is and why would one want it to the 
help output ;)
(http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mkgmap didn't provide much more 
information either)
4.2. --route - is this still experimental, as --help suggests ?
side note : a newcomer might be put off by the fact that it's not listed 
in http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mkgmap at all - maybe it would be 
better to keep cli options on a separate page (would make main page also 
readable). and also maybe just regenerate cli option page from 
--help=options output every now and then so that two sets of options 
won't have to be maintained ?
4.3. --remove-short-arcs : again, not listed in the main page at all. 
help output has something on that option, but for beginners, it might be 
helpful to explain what short arcs are, what might be consequences. on a 
more general note, what's a suggestion regarding this option, should it 
be used with some non-zero value ?
also, what actually are "zero-length arcs" ? if i don't specify this 
option at all, would they be kept ? if so, why not remove them by default ?
4.4. --add-pois-to-areas : i suggested adding this one, so i could try 
to document it as best as i could :)
4.5. --gmapsupp - what happens if i don't specify this option ? i seem 
to get img just fine anyway

> Thanks!
> WanMil
-- 
  Rich