[kwlug-disc] OpenStreetMap is pretty good now

[Paul Nijjar]

For all my scripts turning Google calendars into newsletters and
booking meetings at Google community spaces, I actually try to use
alternatives to Google's services as much as possible. 

Maps have been a headache. Several years ago I tried OpenStreetMap and
it was pretty terrible. Finding locations was difficult, and I could
not figure out how to do route planning. Then I tried MapQuest, and
honestly it was pretty terrible too. So I kept falling back to Google
Maps when looking for unfamiliar routes.

I tried OpenStreetMap again the other day and it is much better. I
find that I have to include provinces when looking up things
("Kitchener, Ontario" instead of "Kitchener") but the search interface
actually finds locations now. Furthermore the interface supports route
planning well enough that I can judge the distance between locations,
which is mostly what I want (I don't care much for turn-by-turn
directions. I have paper maps and can read them myself).

The one feature I miss are the elevation graphs that Google produces
for a route. OpenStreetMap knows about elevations and tells me total
ascents and descents, but does not graph them out. Oh well.

It is nice that OpenStreetMap has gotten much better, because Google
Maps has gotten much worse. It has fallen prey to "click in the wrong
place and something both unexpected and unpleasant happens" syndrome,
and also "this website is getting too slow for my computer" syndrome. 
Such is the modern web, I guess.

- Paul

-- 
http://pnijjar.freeshell.org