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> There is no good gps app anyway. Forget global positioning specifically, shouldn't a good OpenStreetMap atlas application without automatic positioning be fe

> There is no good gps app anyway. Forget global positioning specifically, shouldn't a good OpenStreetMap atlas application without automatic positioning be feasible, if not presently available? Today it might feel like caveman technology, but it's not that long ago that having a high quality up-to-date world atlas that fits in your pocket would have been considered a considerable marvel. That such an atlas might also tell you exactly where you are at all times is icing on the cake.

jraph 5y ago
Let's forget GPS. Well, you have those options which work well enough to be usable (you don't have pinch zoom, Gnome Maps takes a while to load, openstreetmap.org does not fit very good on mobile, both require an internet connection): - openstreetmap.org - GNOME Maps Then you have Pure Maps. It allows offline maps using OSM Scout Server [2]. It seems good, however it overheats my PinePhone and crashes probably out of lack of resources. So I don't use it. It could be because of Flatpak, but I'm not sure. As for how to build a good alternative, I see these possibilities: - contribute to Pure Maps to make it more lightweight. Maybe it's just a matter of building native packages for distributions like Mobian and Manjaro. - Look whether KDE has a good app for that. They have Marble on the desktop but I'm not sure there is a mobile version that works well yet so porting this to mobile could be a way. KDE apps are generally very high quality though Marble could use some refinement. - using C++ and Qt/QML with its Map widget, and find a way to use OSM Scout Server to provide the tiles. Actually, Pure Maps is a QML app. - build a minimal web page showing a Leaflet or a MapLibre widget, connected to a backend built using a compiled language like C++ or D, itself connecting to OSM Scout Server to provide the tiles. Or to OSM Scout Server directly if it is possible. The last option is probably the most lightweight solution, provided you probably have a browser already running on your phone. I'm not saying this out of my ass by the way, I'm building an SMS app using Svelte for the user interface and D for the backend connecting to the modem and managing the SQLite database. It's way faster than chatty. Maybe don't use React though, this is heavy (Mattermost works but is almost unusable, Element (Matrix) works way better but you still feel latency everywhere). [1] https://openrepos.net/content/rinigus/pure-maps https://openrepos.net/content/rinigus/pure-maps [2] https://rinigus.github.io/osmscout-server/ https://rinigus.github.io/osmscout-server/

jraph 5y ago

Let's forget GPS. Well, you have those options which work well enough to be usable (you don't have pinch zoom, Gnome Maps takes a while to load, openstreetmap.org does not fit very good on mobile, both require an internet connection): - openstreetmap.org - GNOME Maps Then you have Pure Maps. It allows offline maps using OSM Scout Server [2]. It seems good, however it overheats my PinePhone and crashes probably out of lack of resources. So I don't use it. It could be because of Flatpak, but I'm not sure. As for how to build a good alternative, I see these possibilities: - contribute to Pure Maps to make it more lightweight. Maybe it's just a matter of building native packages for distributions like Mobian and Manjaro. - Look whether KDE has a good app for that. They have Marble on the desktop but I'm not sure there is a mobile version that works well yet so porting this to mobile could be a way. KDE apps are generally very high quality though Marble could use some refinement. - using C++ and Qt/QML with its Map widget, and find a way to use OSM Scout Server to provide the tiles. Actually, Pure Maps is a QML app. - build a minimal web page showing a Leaflet or a MapLibre widget, connected to a backend built using a compiled language like C++ or D, itself connecting to OSM Scout Server to provide the tiles. Or to OSM Scout Server directly if it is possible. The last option is probably the most lightweight solution, provided you probably have a browser already running on your phone. I'm not saying this out of my ass by the way, I'm building an SMS app using Svelte for the user interface and D for the backend connecting to the modem and managing the SQLite database. It's way faster than chatty. Maybe don't use React though, this is heavy (Mattermost works but is almost unusable, Element (Matrix) works way better but you still feel latency everywhere). [1] https://openrepos.net/content/rinigus/pure-maps https://openrepos.net/content/rinigus/pure-maps [2] https://rinigus.github.io/osmscout-server/ https://rinigus.github.io/osmscout-server/