[ka-Map-users] Ka-Map and OpenLayers

[Christopher Schmidt]

On Thu, Jun 22, 2006 at 12:58:00PM -0400, Paul Spencer wrote:
> 3) ka-Map's API (tools, overlay etc)
> 
> 4) ka-Map's UI components

> 3) and 4) are trickier since OpenLayers already has some of this and  
> we'll have to make decisions on what to move over.

In some cases, it may be beneficial to have both (barring huge amounts
of code) such that people have a choice. for 4, at the very least,
OpenLayers supports any number of Controls being added to a map, so
creating OpenLayers.Control classes for ka-Map controls would allow
users to choose between them in a case where there are multiple options
which provide different functionality.

Note that the goal here is not to provide lots of copies of similar but
slightly different tools, but ka-Map absolutely has tools that
OpenLayers doesn't have, and some that are similar but not quite the
same, which would be needed in bringing over ka-Map community
applications. To a certain extent, this kind of choice is healthy for
the community, and something we want to encourage.

Even if OpenLayers doesn't take into its core all of the ka-Map
controls, there is always the possibility to provide an additional set
of controls which implements the ka-Map tools as they are now: This
would be similar to the API-compatibility layer we were discussing in
the IRC meeting today.

It is my hope that any ka-Map tools which are being used now could be
available to users who might eventually want to switch their
applications to OpenLayers.

-- 
Christopher Schmidt
Web Developer