

Ask HN: Feedback on HTML5 Mapping Library - DamonOehlman

Hey Guys,<p>I'm just in the process of finishing off a new release of Tile5 (will finalize early in the new year) and would definitely appreciate some feedback on features and stuff people are really chasing in this space.  Here is a link to the sandbox that has the latest code for the library with a swag of demos:<p>http://sandbox.tile5.org/<p>The focus of this version (0.9.4) has very much been on fixing some things under the hood in the library that I knew I could do better.  Once this version is stable(ish) and released the next thing to do is roadmapping the way to a stable 1.0 release.<p>I probably would have asked for feedback earlier, but I really wanted to nail some of those gripes I had with the library before I felt comfortable doing so.<p>In terms of the things I am interested in the following are some questions I have:<p>- How important is it for people to be able to integrate "non-geospatially correct" maps.  I've done some work towards integrating images chopped by Zoomify, but there is still a little to do yet.<p>- I really would keep Tile5 as lightweight as possible, and as such would prefer just to support Mercator project rather than all the different projections that exist in spatial land.  Idea being if you want geospatially correct, then OpenLayers would be your best choice, but if you want a mix between geospatial and expressive mapping capabilities, Tile5 should get your vote.<p>There will definitely the occasional bug, and if you do find one then I'd appreciate reporting it at the github repo:<p>https://github.com/sidelab/tile5<p>Anyway, thanks heaps for taking a look and any feedback you have.<p>Cheers,<p>Damon.
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davidcann
It looks cool and makes sense to use if you're looking at one of the _other_
map services, but it's not clear from your website why I wouldn't just use
Google Maps - they seem to have many HTML5 features built-in.

I'm assuming there are valid reasons to use the other mapping services (i.e.
OSM's Open Source License) and your framework, so perhaps you could make a
chart showing feature comparison?

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DamonOehlman
Thanks David - we will definitely try and cover that somewhere on the site. I
expect that in the majority of cases people who are comfortable with Google's
terms that Google Maps would definitely be the right way to go - they've got a
great team and build an awesome product.

Most of the interest I have had with Tile5 locally has been with GIS providers
that build mapping systems that are for use within the confines of an
organisation (i.e. not for public websites). In these cases you are required
to purchase an Enterprise agreement for Maps and for some people this just
isn't cost effective.

In these situations the fallback choice is either something like OpenLayers or
a mapping vendors own mapping library. Most of those libraries lack the polish
of the GMaps library.

Will definitely try and come up with some words that capture this for the
tile5.org site.

