[kwlug-disc] OpenStreetMap is pretty good now

[Chamunks]

I actually have my https://rain-alarm.com pro app set to using OSM instead
of Google maps.  I am definitely a huge Google Maps content participant (
one of their top photographers with almost 4 million views on my photos )
but I really like the way that OSM is coming along and generally prefer it
when I can.

On Tue, Jun 19, 2018 at 9:36 AM Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc <
kwlug-disc at kwlug.org> wrote:

>
> 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
>
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