I have finally gotten around completing the modularization of my Alternative Colors map style and i want to introduce that here.

I already discussed this briefly in context of the new symbol and label rendering system. Introducing that change depended on splitting project.mml into separate files – one for each layer – which then get combined into a single file for use by carto with a python script. I already sketched the idea that this system could also be used to have different style variants and make some more computationally expensive features of the style optional. But this was still incomplete back then.

What was missing was in particular the option to split and further modularize the lengthy SQL query of the roads layer. I added this now and also implemented the option to turn off

• entrance cutouts in line barriers
• implicit sidewalks on roads
• sophisticated rendering of junctions of roads in ground units
• contextualized rendering of fords and mountain passes
• preprocesed low zoom waterbody rendering
• sophisticated tree rendering
• contextualized water barrier rendering

How does it work? layers.yaml defines tags for each of the layers configured and when running assemble_project.py you can select which tags you want to use. For example running

scripts/assemble_project.py -t ac

generates the standard AC-Style setup with all the sophisticated and expensive layers while

scripts/assemble_project.py -t simple

leaves out all the more complex stuff or replaces it with a simplified version.

Within SQL code different variants can be implemented with specific directives. Like:

@@if(ac)
  @@include(roads/sidewalks.sql)
@@else
  @@include(roads/sidewalks-dummy.sql)
@@end

A few notes on the purpose of the AC-Style

Since people are sometimes confused about what the purpose of the AC-Style is and why there is no interactive map based on the style available i wanted to add a few notes on that.

In my last update on the OpenStreetMap-Carto project i explained a bit the history of the AC-Style. After starting as a simple demonstrator of how a more holistic and systematic color design in the style can lead to a more harmonic, better readable and better maintainable map, it changed over time into a much broader test bed for case studies in advanced map design.

What has not changed since the beginning though is that i decidedly do not invest into producing an interactive map based on the style. I would support anyone who is interested in deploying a map based on the AC-Style with advice and if necessary adjustments to the style. But i don’t want to spend my time on doing something that i am not good at and administering a map deployment is not my field of expertise.

Why do i not actively try to get any of the developments from the AC-Style into OSM-Carto? Because for many of the core design changes there is no consensus support among the OSM-Carto maintainers. Joseph Eisenberg invested quite a lot of time and energy to get some of the fundamental color changes i developed into OSM-Carto – but without success. And many of the other changes in the AC-Style design wise depend on these changes. There are still some improvements and feature additions that could be integrated and some actually are – at times with modifications, like the allotments rendering or the ridge/arete patterns.

Do i think it would be good to replace OSM-Carto in deployments with the AC-Style? Hell no. OSM-Carto is foremost a cooperative community project where decisions are made through consensus of a fairly diverse team of maintainers. As i have pointed out in the previously mentioned update on OSM-Carto the project has been struggling with the practical difficulties of this approach for some time (for reasons i discussed there in more depth). But any project run by a single person – no matter how benevolent they are – is not a suitable substitute.

As i have pointed out in the past the OSM-Community could very much use a larger variety of independently developed map styles. Quite a bit of progress has been made on that front in the past years, but unfortunately exclusively on styles targeting the needs and wishes of specific local communities and mostly under control of a single decision maker. Nothing is in sight so far even remotely aiming to create a map style for a broad global audience in a similar fashion as OSM-Carto though.

Would it in my eyes makes sense if someone was to start off a new cooperative map design project with such a scope to base it on the AC-Style rather than OSM-Carto? Design wise a strong argument could be made for that but i would still advise against it because of the technical complexity and the massive hurdle that would pose to potential contributors. What might be worth considering though is to have some of the fundamental design changes from the AC-Style, that – as explained – do not have consensus support in OSM-Carto right now, from the start in such a project because it would make further design work so much easier.