Maps revisited

Last year I created a prototype map renderer in Silverlight using the OSM dataset. Since then I've been thinking about some of the issues with the design - especially:

• the UI load time and
• some specific issues with the Quad Store approach
• Dataset size
• Automated updates to the dataset, including taking differences
• No Geograhic AI system
• No animation engine in the renderer

I've decided that I will restart the renderer again, but with a new design, storage mechanism and using more mature agile approaches (i.e. TDD, Mocking, IoC etc). Also during this time silverlight has moved form version 2.0 to 4.0 which also offers some interesting capabilities, and .Net 4.0 now has support for memory mapped files. I also want to follow a more product management approach, with a proper backlog etc.

TDD Unit test for Strontium using Rhino Mocks

I've started writing new code, especially for the import routine using the full dataset rather than just London. As part of this I'm using PowerShell and the Pscx extensions - there seems to be some issues with handling large files, so hopefully when this gets fixed I can have a constantly updating system.

The prototype code was using the Project Cobalt name, this new effort will go under Project Strontium