I'm on the way toward releasing Maemo Mapper v2.0. Maemo Mapper v2.0 is going to represent a major shift in the paradigm I've been using up to this point, mostly as a reaction to the release of the N800. The focus with the 770 was very much on performance, due to the limitations of the hardware. The focus in Maemo Mapper v2.0 will be on features and aesthetics, including drag-panning, heading-based view rotation, and maybe even some transparency or anti-aliasing. Heck, I'll even be testing the feasability of implementing a "perspective" view, allowing you to see more of the map in front of you.

By popular request, I will also be aiming for cross-platform compatibility in hopes of a Windows (or at least x86) release, so you can run Maemo Mapper on your laptop at any resolution you wish. (For that reason, I am even considering renaming or forking the project. Any ideas? Not GpsDrive. )

One of the big changes will be to use a database cache instead of a file system cache, to address the internal fragmentation of thousands of small files eating away at the free space of memory cards. Before I go further in the development of this particular new feature, I wanted to get some opinions about how to introduce it.

Those of you with "extensive" map caches may not appreciate having to re-download the maps that they've downloaded. I'm planning to provide a command-line utility to "convert" a file system cache to the new database cache format. Would you prefer that I also continue to allow Maemo Mapper to work with a file system cache? I can set it up so that each repository can be switched independently between a file system cache or a database cache. (It would complicate the code and reduce performance slightly.)

I guess my real question is this: does anyone see any value in maintaining the old file-system-based map cache? The only benefit I see is being able to browse through the individual map files, deleting or adding files as you see fit. The file system hierarchy is too complex for this, though, and if you're savvy enough to sort it out, you're probably savvy enough to mess with a database cache directly. Are there other, more relevant reasons to maintain backward compatibility with file system map caches?

Also, I'm open to other ideas to implement in v2.0, but keep in mind that I'm only one man, and my plans for v2.0 are already taking up a lot of my spare time. Hopefully, I'll find the time to document some of these plans in the Garage, but until then, feel free to post suggestions to this thread or the Feature Request section of the Maemo Mapper Garage Tracker.

Note: I will still, always be releasing every new version of Maemo Mapper for the 770, as well as for the N800. Some of the newer features may not run as well under particular conditions, or may require the use of swap, but it will ALWAYS be runnable (and usable) on the 770. I still own my 770, and I want to be able to run Maemo Mapper on it, too.