3 ms·

At least in the short- to medium-term, it seems unlikely that we'll get tablet-like machines that are of a size to compare favorably even to a travel-size road

by blahedo 15y ago

At least in the short- to medium-term, it seems unlikely that we'll get tablet-like machines that are of a size to compare favorably even to a travel-size road atlas, much less a bookshelf or library atlas like in the OP. The physical size of it is useful because it can take up a larger portion of your field of vision, which better helps you get a sense of place within the mapped region. Even in a large browser on my 24" iMac I have a somewhat frustrating sense of looking through a too-small window that is blocking some of what I want to see. If I zoom out, I lose resolution. So maybe eventually, but I don't think we're "starting to see" electronic atlases that uniformly exceed the paper variety. They are better in some ways and worse in some ways, and that will remain true for at least another couple decades, I think.

ugh 15y ago
I don't know about that. For me personally electronic maps have enough advantages to completely replace the printed variey. That's with existing hardware. It's often true: Perfect feature parity is not necessary to replace something. (Cars certainly don't have all the features of horses.) A few features that blow the old vareity out of the water are often enough. (I can think of a few: Price, accesibility, flexibilit, compactness.)
feral 15y ago
The Microsoft Surface is 107cm x 56cm. I haven't done it, but I'd say the experience of looking at at atlas on it, with multitouch zooming, and the ability to turn on and off layers, compares favorably to using a library atlas, like in the OP. Is it compact and portable? No - but neither is a library atlas. How long before this sort of technology is common place? Or a wall projector and multitouch setup? I don't know - but I strongly doubt it'll take decades. Decades is an awfully long time these days.
- gjm11 15y ago
  AIUI the display resolution of the Surface is 1024x768. That's not going to be even slightly like using a large atlas, no matter how big it is. (A display that large with substantially more pixels, plus all the wonderful interactive things you can't do with paper, would be a fine thing indeed. But the Surface isn't it, at least not yet. Maybe there'll be a Surface 2 with much higher resolution?)
njharman 15y ago
> which better helps you get a sense of place within the mapped region Ability to Zoom in/out (and to lessor extent pan around) provides far greater sense of place.

by blahedo 15y ago

ugh 15y ago

I don't know about that. For me personally electronic maps have enough advantages to completely replace the printed variey. That's with existing hardware. It's often true: Perfect feature parity is not necessary to replace something. (Cars certainly don't have all the features of horses.) A few features that blow the old vareity out of the water are often enough. (I can think of a few: Price, accesibility, flexibilit, compactness.)

feral 15y ago

The Microsoft Surface is 107cm x 56cm. I haven't done it, but I'd say the experience of looking at at atlas on it, with multitouch zooming, and the ability to turn on and off layers, compares favorably to using a library atlas, like in the OP. Is it compact and portable? No - but neither is a library atlas. How long before this sort of technology is common place? Or a wall projector and multitouch setup? I don't know - but I strongly doubt it'll take decades. Decades is an awfully long time these days.

gjm11 15y ago
AIUI the display resolution of the Surface is 1024x768. That's not going to be even slightly like using a large atlas, no matter how big it is. (A display that large with substantially more pixels, plus all the wonderful interactive things you can't do with paper, would be a fine thing indeed. But the Surface isn't it, at least not yet. Maybe there'll be a Surface 2 with much higher resolution?)

njharman 15y ago

> which better helps you get a sense of place within the mapped region Ability to Zoom in/out (and to lessor extent pan around) provides far greater sense of place.