Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Any model of online map delivery that does not use such a model will inevitably
fail because of the high costs of map updates and map delivery.
Summary
By providing the tools for creating user-defined maps, APIs represent the building-
blocks for mapping in the cloud. The particular coding of each API varies and the
open source Mapstraction API makes it possible to easily switch between many of
them. The development of mapping APIs is in an early stage and it may be too early
to try to define a standard set of calls as has been attempted with the Mapstraction
project. For example, certain functions are implemented in some APIs that are not
available in others. MapStraction can only support a common set of functions.
While there are slight variations in the coding, the major difference between the
mapping APIs may be the rendering of the underlying base map, and the speed of
map display. The delivery of the tiles to a large number of simultaneous users at an
acceptable speed is probably the single most important factor in judging the any
particularly API.
There are many ways to evaluate mapping APIs. While a thorough evaluation of
functionality, execution speed, and length-of-code would be possible, the major
evaluative criteria may be cost of use and long-term viability. The fastest and most
functional API today is of little use if it is not still available a decade from now.
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