Map Key for OpenCycleMap and other layers

[dkniffin]

I would like to see the map key support more layers than the base layer. OpenCycleMap already has one here: http://www.opencyclemap.org/docs/

Although, the one there could be improved/expanded. For example, I have no idea what the blue lines along the road here mean. From looking at satellite images, I assume it means bike lanes.

[Wuzzy2]

Let's use this issue to report things which are missing from the key.

What's missing:

• Some symbols (see the /docs/ page)
• Pretty much all area colors
• Street types like service or track
• “the blue lines alone the road” (dkniffin)
• Probably more (not sure what I'm missing)

To my knowledge, the OpenCycleMap style is kept secret for some reason (so much for “Open” xD. But correct me if I'm wrong). The author(s) of this style can help us by:

• Releasing the OpenCycleMap into the public, or
• Completing the key written down at http://opencyclemap.org/docs/, or
• Doing both.

[tomhughes]

Please keep your political disputes with @gravitystorm out of this.

Equally I don't think trying to create a complete list of every missing symbol is helpful - it's unlikely (given the number of things we render) that a key will ever include every obscure symbol as it would have to be about a hundred pages long.

This bug is simply to record the fact that we need to complete the cyclemap key and add keys for the other layers that don't have them. In reality that is likely to be next to impossible unless the upstream providers of those layers choose to make the data for such a key available.

[Wuzzy2]

Please keep your political disputes with @gravitystorm out of this.

Well, it is relevant here because it relates to solving this issue. It would help a lot if the author chooses to cooperate because the author knows much better than we how his style works. If not, then only “reverse-engineering” remains. So, @gravitystorm, would you please be so kind in helping us improve www.openstreetmap.org? :-)

that a key will ever include every obscure symbol as it would have to be about a hundred pages long.

Kinda true for Standard (but not “hundred pages”-kind of true), but certainly not for OpenCycleMap, as it only uses ca. 13 symbols. It seems that OpenCycleMap is much less complex than Standard, so even a 100% complete key might be rather short.

Besides, what is the point of rendering something if the meaning is not clear to the end user or there is at least no means to look it up? Sure, it might look nice, but becomes essentially useless. Even if the page will become very long, well, so be it. In this case, putting the full key on a seperate page (wiki or static or whatever) might help and only writing the most important things into the sidebar. But I doubt OpenCycleMap needs such an external page.

Edit: What is especially needed are the raw icons (ideally as SVG) so they can be put into the sidebar.

[gravitystorm]

@Wuzzy2 I don't know why you've turned this issue into such an anti-@gravitystorm thing. It's unlikely to help. What you could do in future is to ask how to help, rather than taking the attitude that you know better and telling me what to do.

I have been working for years now on developing software that can create legends from mapnik stylesheets. I work on too many styles to create legends manually. See https://github.com/gravitystorm/mapnik-legendary. If you want to help, improving this software would be a good place to start. If you want to complain, to demand that I open-source my stylesheets, or to tell me that my maps are "essentially useless", then this will not help.

[Wuzzy2]

I have been working for years now on developing software that can create legends from mapnik stylesheets. I work on too many styles to create legends manually.

This sounds great. Automatically generating the key is obviously much better than manually creating it. So yeah, this makes sense to me. Does this application already work, i.e. can it be used to actually generate a key? Or is it still in “experimental” stage? In any case, huge thanks for the work on this! :-)

If you want to help, improving this software would be a good place to start.

So if I contribute to mapnik-legendary, how will this solve this issue when I don't have the stylesheet (which I need to generate the output)? Frankly, I feel I am being used.

I really, really do not understand why you are against publishing your stylesheet. I thought I am in the OpenStreetMap community. Isn't the point of OSM openness and transparency? I think my “evil audacious demand” ;-) is totally justified and reasonable in this context, especially since OpenCycleMap is on the OSM homepage. It's your choice, of course, but not a very helpful choice. :-/

I now ask you directly: Is your decision to keep the stylesheet secret final? (No, this is NOT an off-topic question. The answer to this question will directly determine how we should proceed in fixing this issue.)

Also: I did NOT say your maps are “essentially useless”. I just said that any element (especially symbol) on the map which is not explained properly is more or less useless to the user because the user can't understand it and needs to fall back on guessing. Luckily, OpenCycleMap already has a basic key, so this criticism does not apply. OpenCycleMap is a good map layer (in terms of quality) and not useless at all.

This is not a crusade against you or OpenCycleMap, this is about making www.openstreetmap.org better.

[tomhughes]

You're welcome to discuss that with @gravitystorm but this is not an appropriate venue to do so - this is the issue tracker for openstreetmap.org not for the opencyclemap style.

[comready]

When I press the “i” on the right hand side it says “ Map Key not available for this layer ”. I am trying to find out what a grey street means and found some info here https://www.opencyclemap.org/docs/
but it does not include that. What is a grey street please?

[matkoniecz]

@jzlcdh That would be better asked on https://community.openstreetmap.org/ (this issue would fit for discussing implementation of that missing feature)

[comready]

@matkoniecz But earlier in the issue Wuzzy2 says “Let's use this issue to report things which are missing from the key.” so I am reporting that grey streets are missing from the key.

[matkoniecz]

If you look through comments later then you can see that following Wuzzy2 seems to not be optimal (to the point that closing this issue and opening new one may be a good idea).

And either way, fact that map key is entirely missing for OpenCycleMap is missing entirely - what is already reported.