Proposal:Markup for Maps

    From Strategic Planning
    Status (see valid statuses)

    The status of this proposal is:
    Request for Discussion / Sign-Ups

    Every proposal should be tied to one of the strategic priorities below.

    Edit this page to help identify the priorities related to this proposal!


    1. Achieve continued growth in readership
    2. Focus on quality content
    3. Increase Participation
    4. Stabilize and improve the infrastructure
    5. Encourage Innovation


    If not English, in what language is this proposal submitted?:

    Summary

    Instead of a tedious creation of maps, star maps, geographical maps, other maps, create a markup system that generates maps as needed.

    Proposal

    The proposal regards constructing a markup language that generates maps instead of the editors providing images. This should be seen as a complement to providing images, not a sole restricted alternative.

    In order to generate a map over Putnok, the editor could write:

    <map>
      TYPE: Earth
      CAPTION: Position of Putnok, [[Hungary]]
      SIZE: 200x200(px)
      PROJECTION: Mercator
      CENTER: Hungary
      SPOT(reddot.jpg): 48°18'N, 20°26'E
      DETAIL LEVEL: 12 ; for roads and towns shown
      GEOGRAPHY LEVEL: 4 ; for rivers and topography shown
    </map>
    

    autogenerating a relevant map over that town. In order to generate a sky map highlighting Sirrah (a.k.a. Alpheratz, Alpha Andromedae):

    <map>
      TYPE: Sky
      CAPTION: The star Alpha in constellation [[Andromeda]]
      SIZE: 300x224(px)
      PROJECTION: Lambert conformal conic projection
      CENTER: Andromeda
      SQUARE(border=2px,color=red,dimensions=2°x2°): RA00h08m23s, DE+29°05′26″
      STAR LEVEL: 6.5 ; for stars
      NEBULAE LEVEL: 6.0 ; for nebulous objects, nebulae and stars
    </map>
    
    float
    float

    Motivation

    Easier map creation for the editor. Possibly also some storage benefits for the Wikipedia servers, while the cost might be some CPU time.

    Key Questions

    Is it needed? Or are there freely available software out there that can already do the same thing? For star maps PP3 have existed for a long time, with the troubles that an installation is so complex and has so many dependencies that it requires an advanced programmer and essentially a Linux-like environment. Making it a markup language would make it available to any editor (equality aspect). For geographical maps I don't know. One markup for many map types might be important for the common user.


    • What benefits would this have over the standards based GML ?

    Potential Costs

    • Programming time,
    • Server CPU.

    References

    Proposal notes:

    Application areas:

    Other projects:

    Community Discussion

    Do you have a thought about this proposal? A suggestion? Discuss this proposal by going to Proposal talk:Markup for Maps.

    Want to work on this proposal?

    1. .. Sign your name here!