mapscii/README.md

# MapSCII - The Whole World In Your Console.

A node.js based [Vector Tile](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Vector_tiles) to [Braille](http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/block/braille_patterns/utf8test.htm) and [ASCII](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Standard_Code_for_Information_Interchange) renderer for [xterm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xterm)-compatible terminals.

<a href="https://asciinema.org/a/117813?autoplay=1" target="_blank">![asciicast](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1259904/25480718/497a64e2-2b4a-11e7-9cf0-ed52ee0b89c0.png)</a>

## Try it out!

```sh
$ telnet mapscii.me
```

If you're on Windows, use the open source telnet client [PuTTY](https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html) to connect.

## Features

* Use your mouse to drag and zoom in and out!
* Discover Point-of-Interests around any given location
* Highly customizable layer styling with [Mapbox Styles](https://www.mapbox.com/mapbox-gl-style-spec/) support
* Connect to any public or private vector tile server
* Or just use the supplied and optimized [OSM2VectorTiles](https://github.com/osm2vectortiles) based one
* Work offline and discover local [VectorTile](https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec)/[MBTiles](https://github.com/mapbox/mbtiles-spec)
* Compatible with most Linux and OSX terminals
* Highly optimizied algorithms for a smooth experience
* 100% pure JavaScript! :sunglasses:

## How to install it locally

### With npm

If you haven't already got Node.js >= version 4.5, then [go get it](http://nodejs.org/).

```
npm install -g mapscii
```

If you're on OSX, or get an error about file permissions, you may need to do ```sudo npm install -g mapscii```

### With snap

In any of the [supported Linux distros](https://snapcraft.io/docs/core/install):

    sudo snap install mapscii
    
(This snap is maintained by [@nathanhaines](https://github.com/nathanhaines/))

## Running

This is pretty simple too.

```
mapscii
```

## Keyboard shortcuts

* Arrows **up**, **down**, **left**, **right** to scroll around
* Press **a** or **z** to zoom in and out
* Press **q** to quit

## Mouse control

If your terminal supports mouse events you can drag the map and use your scroll wheel to zoom in and out.

## Behind the scenes
### Libraries
#### Mastering the console
  * [`x256`](https://github.com/substack/node-x256) for converting RGB values to closest xterm-256 [color code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Xterm_256color_chart.svg)
  * [`term-mouse`](https://github.com/CoderPuppy/term-mouse) for mouse handling
  * [`keypress`](https://github.com/TooTallNate/keypress) for input handling
  * [`string-width`](https://github.com/sindresorhus/string-width) to determine visual string lengths

#### Discovering the map data
* [`vector-tile`](https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-js) for [VectorTile](https://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec/tree/master/2.1) parsing
* [`pbf`](https://github.com/mapbox/pbf) for [Protobuf](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/) decoding
* [`mbtiles`](https://github.com/mapbox/node-mbtiles) for [MBTiles](https://github.com/mapbox/mbtiles-spec/blob/master/1.2/spec.md) parsing

#### Juggling the vectors and numbers
* [`earcut`](https://github.com/mapbox/earcut) for polygon triangulation
* [`rbush`](https://github.com/mourner/rbush) for 2D spatial indexing of geo and label data
* [`breseham`](https://github.com/madbence/node-bresenham) for line point calculations
* [`simplify-js`](https://github.com/mourner/simplify-js) for polyline simplifications

#### Handling the flow
* [`bluebird`](https://github.com/petkaantonov/bluebird) for all the asynchronous [Promise](https://developer.mozilla.org/de/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Promise) magic
* [`node-fetch`](https://github.com/bitinn/node-fetch) for HTTP requests
* [`userhome`](https://github.com/shama/userhome) to determine where to persist downloaded tiles

### TODOs
* MapSCII
  * [ ] GeoJSON support via [geojson-vt](https://github.com/mapbox/geojson-vt)
  * [ ] CLI support
    * [ ] startup parameters
      * [ ] TileSource
      * [ ] Style
      * [ ] center position
      * [ ] zoom
      * [ ] demo mode?

  * [ ] mouse control
    * [ ] hover POIs/labels
    * [ ] hover maybe even polygons/-lines?
    * [ ] zoom into mouse pos

* Styler
  * [ ] respect zoom based style ranges

* Renderer
  * [ ] download and process tiles in a different thread ([#3](https://github.com/rastapasta/mapscii/issues/3))
  * [ ] optimize renderer for large areas ([#6](https://github.com/rastapasta/mapscii/issues/6))
  * [ ] label drawing
    * [ ] multi line label?

* TileSource
  * [ ] implement single vector-tile handling

## Special thanks

* [lukasmartinelli](https://github.com/lukasmartinelli) & [manuelroth](https://github.com/manuelroth) for all their work on [OSM2VectorTiles](https://github.com/osm2vectortiles) (global vector tiles from [OSM Planet](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Planet.osm))
* [mourner](https://github.com/mourner) for all his work on mindblowing GIS algorithms (like the used [earcut](https://github.com/mapbox/earcut), [rbush](https://github.com/mourner/rbush), [simplify-js](https://github.com/mourner/simplify-js), ..)

## Licenses

### Map data

#### The Open Data Commons Open Database License (oDbl)

[OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org) is open data, licensed under the [Open Data Commons Open Database License](http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/) (ODbL) by the [OpenStreetMap Foundation](http://osmfoundation.org/) (OSMF).

You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt our data, as long as you credit OpenStreetMap and its contributors. If you alter or build upon our data, you may distribute the result only under the same licence. The full [legal code](http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1.0/) explains your rights and responsibilities.

The cartography in our map tiles, and our documentation, are licenced under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/) licence (CC BY-SA).

### MapSCII

#### The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Michael Straßburger

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.