Proposal talk:Markup for Maps

Highlight countries

Hi. I think that this is a great idea, and I'd llike to be able to specify colors for each country on a world map (probably as a template) so I could create an image like File:IPhone_3G_Availability.svg programmatically, like Australia=#7e98ce repeated a hundred times. This would make it very easy to update this image from time to time. HereToHelp 02:45, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

I think your example image sample is one of the typical applications for a markup language like the one I conceived up. Exactly that map would be easy to generate in a provisional implementation by letting a program recolor the individual countries in the SVG-code, except the overwhelming number of editors don't know how and aren't expected to know. They must therefore do it manually, which is laborious and deterent. For your map, one might imagine a markup like:

<map>
  TYPE: Earth
  CAPTION: Availability of [[IPhone]] [[IPhone#3G|3G]]
  SIZE: 940x415(px)
  PROJECTION: Mercator
  CENTER: Earth ; 
  DETAIL LEVEL: 1 ; nations only
  HIGHLIGHT(level=1,color=#305ba3): us de fr gb as ie
  HIGHLIGHT(level=2,color=#7e98ce): [NAm] -pa [SAm] -bo -sr -gy -gf
    [Eur] -ua -rs ... etc. etc. etc. 
</map>

where the 2 letter land codes are used to select, when preceded by a minus, to deselect the country. To avoid the impracticality of needing to add all countries of a continent, one might imagine a "macro" like [SAm] for all countries in South America. Rursus 07:57, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Duh...

Ignorant of even the most basic markup, (your sequence looks quite simple but is still closed to me) I wonder if you can make it so that an editor in my circumstances could still use it, that is, can you make it work behind an interface that only asks me for a set of coordinates, or the country/continent code, or... you see what I mean. Thamus 05:20, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes I think I see what you mean. I'll think I'll make some clarifying notes. An implemented markup should have some clear documentation, enabling it to be usable for any editor — otherwise using the map markup might undesirably become for the knowledgeable editors only. Rursus 08:59, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Slippy maps for Openstreetmap integration

We work on integration on Openstreetmap-maps: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OpenStreetMap

This maps will be cached as static map and than zoomable if you click on it. http://u.nix.is/wiki/index.php/Maptest We will rendering different styles so I see no problem to rendering also high resolution star map. If you want start to developing you can do this on toolserver.

--Kolossos 18:06, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

1. Sorry for being late. 1½. And thanks!

2. This is partially covering my proposal. There are other mediawiki projects also partially covering my proposal. The trouble as usual will be covering a generalized mapmaking including space, Earth geology, Earth political history, Mars, Jupiter and everything that can be mapped upon a globe, cone, flat surface and this and that.

3. Now, being attended on your project, I'll study it and see more in detail and if I can partake in generalizing it. Rursus 08:52, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

Impact?

Some proposals will have massive impact on end-users, including non-editors. Some will have minimal impact. What will be the impact of this proposal on our end-users? -- Philippe 00:12, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Depends. I guess this one will increase the number of maps on wikipedia, by about 10-20% per image map used today, maybe. The editors knowing a need, "d*rn I wish I had a map over the political subdivision of middle east in the 6th century" might be pretty low, such as 1 per 20, however, if a facility is present and creative editors are studying how-to by examining code (I do it pretty often), then the amount of editors considering using the facility might be much greater, such as 1 per 5, and the number of maps accordingly becoming greater. For the rest, they might wish to have free images of non-maps, such as a portrait of a celebrity or a rare animal, and that is another topic not covered by this proposal — maybe Wikimedia foundation can send up satellites in orbit and continuously photograph the entire planet in high detail, and the solar system, and the entire universe besides ;^) Rursus 08:46, 18 September 2009 (UTC)