[Pkg-javascript-devel] Bug#742347: overview of the tilemill situation and alternatives (mapbox, kosmtik)

[Ross Gammon]

Hi Antoine,

Thanks for that excellent summary! It has cleared up a confusion that I
had. More below:

On 03/13/2016 04:40 PM, Antoine Beaupré wrote:
>  1. Mapbox people have released a new product in september 2014 named
>     [Mapbox studio classic][]. the code is a
>     [still freely available][] and seems to be a
>     [fork of tilemill][]. mapbox classic still has releases on github,
>     last one is from november 2015
> 
>  [Mapbox studio classic]: https://www.mapbox.com/mapbox-studio-classic/#linux
>  [still freely available]: https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-studio-classic
>  [fork of tilemill]: https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-studio-classic/blob/mb-pages/docs/0000-01-01-common-questions.md#how-is-mapbox-studio-related-to-tilemill#user-content-how-is-mapbox-studio-classic-related-to-tilemill

Actually, it looks like mapbox-studio was renamed mapbox-studio-classic
when they released the new mapbox-studio [3] which runs online (after
sign up).

> 
>  2. It looks like Mapbox studio classic has some sort of
>     [Mapbox.com lock-in][], and there are certainly new copyright
>     issues, if only with the [bundled fonts][]. but it could probably
>     be packaged.
> 
>  [Mapbox.com lock-in]: https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-studio-classic/blob/mb-pages/docs/0000-01-01-common-questions.md#can-i-use-git-with-a-style-or-source-project
>  [bundled fonts]: https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-studio-classic/blob/mb-pages/docs/0000-01-01-common-questions.md#what-cancant-i-do-with-pro-fonts

Yes. Mapbox-studio (classic) needs a log in, but is probably worthwhile
for access to all the datasets. I have not signed up yet :-)

> 
>  3. Then there's [mapbox studio][], which is a
>     [full rewrite of mapbox][]. You need to "signup" somehow to get
>     access, even though parts of the code are free, namely the
>     [Mapbox GL studio][] project
> 
>  [Mapbox GL studio]: https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-gl-native/
>  [full rewrite of mapbox]: https://www.mapbox.com/help/upgrading-from-classic/
>  [mapbox studio]: https://www.mapbox.com/mapbox-studio/
> 
>  4. The [Openstreetmap-carto][] developpers have mostly switched to
>     [kosmtik][] instead of Mapbox.
> 
>  [Openstreetmap-carto]: https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto
>  [kosmtik]: https://github.com/kosmtik/kosmtik

Kosmtik will be the quickest to package. But as stated in the readme:
"Alpha version, installable only from source". We would need to create
an executable (which upstream themselves believe they are not ready for).

>  6. Ross has an [ITP for kosmtik][]. The package is waiting on other
>     node dependencies to be uploaded (yes, again).
>  
>  [ITP for kosmtik]: https://bugs.debian.org/805308

Feel free to help out by picking up one of the RFP's :-)

> 
>  7. There is also an [ITP for Mapbox-studio][] yet it is unclear to me
>     what that one means because the source code to Mapbox-studio
>     doesn't seem to be available, as far as i can tell (and the ITP
>     doesn't say either).
> 
>  [ITP for Mapbox-studio]: https://bugs.debian.org/#761914

This is where the confusion was. $ npm install mapbox-studio gets you:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/mapbox-studio
This points you to the source at github.com/mapbox/mapbox-studio which
redirects to github.com/mapbox/mapbox-studio-classic!

> 
>  8. There's no WNPP bug for Mapbox studio *classic* that I can
>     found.

So now there is! I will retitle the mapbox-studio RFP to
mapbox-studio-classic, and the relevant Javascript Team task page:
https://wiki.debian.org/Javascript/Nodejs/Tasks/mapbox-studio
There is plenty here that needs packaging.

 there's still an [RFP for tilemill][], which should
>     probably be closed now because the project seems dead and plenty
>     of alternatives exist. I wonder if node some dependencies that
>     were packaged for Tilemill actually now need to be *removed* from
>     Debian, because they have become useless leaf packages... I am
>     leaving the Tilemill RFP open for someone to clean that up.
> 
>  [RFP for tilemill]: https://bugs.debian.org/644767

We should not be too hasty here. Some of the dependencies may still be
required by other mapping apps. Also, tilemill is not completely dead.
The mapbox employees are not allowed to work on tilemill during work
time, but they will merge pull requests, and are happy to give wider
commit access. Someone stated on one of their bugs that their personal
fork of tilemill is working and is willing to push those changes back.
So it could be resurrected yet.

Of course, some packages may get removed from stretch automatically (RC)
anyway.

Cheers,

Ross

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