eighty-twenty

Today I released a thing I’ve been hacking on called TiledMaps.

http://squeaksource.com/TiledMaps.html

It’s a package for Squeak Smalltalk. It can load and cache static, prerendered map tiles from a variety of sources including OpenStreetMaps, Bing Maps, and so on.

It includes a geocoder query service which maps free-text queries to regions of the planet’s surface. The service can be backed by the Nominatim service (associated with OpenStreetMaps), the Bing geocoder, the Google geocoder, and so on.

Selection of tilesets is independent of selection of geocoder, so you can mix and match.

The package includes a “slippy map” morph called TiledMapMorph, that allows interaction with a map using the mouse. It includes a few hooks for EToys, too, so EToys scripting of the map is possible.

To install it in your Squeak 5.3alpha image, first update to the latest trunk version:

MCMcmUpdater updateFromServer

Then load the TiledMaps package from SqueakSource:

(Installer repository: 'http://squeaksource.com/TiledMaps')
    install: 'ConfigurationOfTiledMaps'

Once it has loaded, open a new TiledMapMorph with

TiledMapMorph new openInWorld

I’ve recorded a short (< 10 min) demo video showing the package in action:

PS. All the Bing services require an API key. You can get one of your own from https://www.bingmapsportal.com/. Included in the package are a few other tile sources and geocoders that need API keys as well - you’ll need to check the websites and terms & conditions for each service you want to use.

PPS. In particular, Google’s terms & conditions explicitly forbid downloading map tiles without going through their Javascript API. The package honours this restriction.