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Great news, Leaflet is the standard for open source web maps. This release looks to have a lot of nice quality of life improvements. I've been a little worried

Great news, Leaflet is the standard for open source web maps. This release looks to have a lot of nice quality of life improvements. I've been a little worried about Leaflet's future vs. Mapbox GL JS. That's also an excellent open source map library, but is based entirely on new technology (vector maps and GL) and favors using Mapbox's paid services. I think Leaflet has a long life ahead for folks who want something simpler, something that can easily composite raster data from many sources.

sunaden 9y ago
I would actually not be worried at all. As you have mentioned, Leaflet is ideal for people who look for something simple which they can further expand. Mapbox is more for people ready to pay for a robust set of APIs and SDKs which can be nicely combined together. From my experience, I think both of them are doing an excellent job.
seattle_spring 9y ago
Mapbox is built on top of Leaflet [1], so I don't think its success would be a bad thing for Leaflet itself. [1] https://blog.mapbox.com/mapbox-%EF%B8%8F-leaflet-d60b1be96615 https://blog.mapbox.com/mapbox-%EF%B8%8F-leaflet-d60b1be9661...
- lucideer 9y ago
  MapboxJS was, but MapboxGLJS is new tech. It was however also made by the creator of Leaflet, who works for Mapbox.
trynewideas 9y ago
I switched a project over from Leaflet to Mapbox GL JS for the better-integrated vector tile support and better mobile rendering performance. Raster tiles still have value, but I wouldn't call vector tiles "new"; they're mature enough that they should start phasing raster tiles out, especially for projects that need a wide range of zoom levels, tight bandwidth requirements, or a lot of flexible, overlapping, and/or dynamic layers. Thanks to tools like Maputnik, tippecanoe, and TileServer GL, I also had no problems using Mapbox GL and vector tiles without once touching a Mapbox service. I still use Leaflet for most raster and simple vector maps simply because it is light and modular enough that I can get what I want, but the open source tools are there to reap the good stuff from Mapbox GL while avoiding the proprietary bits of Mapbox.
- NelsonMinar 9y ago
  I'd love to see a writeup of using Mapbox GL without Mapbox services. I know it's possible in theory but it seems fairly awkward. Particularly interested if there are any map services you can easily use, free or paid, rather than standing up a vector tile server of your own.
  - executive 9y ago
    Not awkward at all: https://openmaptiles.org/ https://openmaptiles.org/

sunaden 9y ago

I would actually not be worried at all. As you have mentioned, Leaflet is ideal for people who look for something simple which they can further expand. Mapbox is more for people ready to pay for a robust set of APIs and SDKs which can be nicely combined together. From my experience, I think both of them are doing an excellent job.

seattle_spring 9y ago

Mapbox is built on top of Leaflet [1], so I don't think its success would be a bad thing for Leaflet itself. [1] https://blog.mapbox.com/mapbox-%EF%B8%8F-leaflet-d60b1be96615 https://blog.mapbox.com/mapbox-%EF%B8%8F-leaflet-d60b1be9661...

lucideer 9y ago
MapboxJS was, but MapboxGLJS is new tech. It was however also made by the creator of Leaflet, who works for Mapbox.

trynewideas 9y ago

I switched a project over from Leaflet to Mapbox GL JS for the better-integrated vector tile support and better mobile rendering performance. Raster tiles still have value, but I wouldn't call vector tiles "new"; they're mature enough that they should start phasing raster tiles out, especially for projects that need a wide range of zoom levels, tight bandwidth requirements, or a lot of flexible, overlapping, and/or dynamic layers. Thanks to tools like Maputnik, tippecanoe, and TileServer GL, I also had no problems using Mapbox GL and vector tiles without once touching a Mapbox service. I still use Leaflet for most raster and simple vector maps simply because it is light and modular enough that I can get what I want, but the open source tools are there to reap the good stuff from Mapbox GL while avoiding the proprietary bits of Mapbox.

NelsonMinar 9y ago
I'd love to see a writeup of using Mapbox GL without Mapbox services. I know it's possible in theory but it seems fairly awkward. Particularly interested if there are any map services you can easily use, free or paid, rather than standing up a vector tile server of your own.
- executive 9y ago
  Not awkward at all: https://openmaptiles.org/ https://openmaptiles.org/