New GiS for History site

[P Kishor]

On 9/12/06, Ben Loh <benpub at inquirium.net> wrote:
> At 1:26 p -0500 9/12/06, P Kishor wrote:
> >still not working well. Earlier, I gave up after about
> >"Loading...300...", but this time, even though the first screen is
> >quick, clicking the zoom button locked me into "Loading...199.207"
> >
> >Looks nice, if it works... quick. My suggestion would be to work on
> >speed quite a bit, especially given you say --
>
>
> Thanks, Puneet.  I'm curious where you're located.  Are you in
> Madison?

Yup. Although you shouldn't hold that against me. ;-)


> We definitely have not optimized our connection yet, but at
> least in the midwest US and western US, I've generally been able to
> get responses around 3 seconds or less.  On the other hand, we also
> occasionally get really long hangs.

Nothing but the hangs here.

> I think it's because mapserver
> is taking so long to generate the overly complex maps, but this is
> our next big challenge.

Do you really need any overly complex map when just showing the
overview? The very first view, that of the entire country, need not be
very complex. You should make liberal and judicious use of MAXSCALE
(or whatever the syntax is... have forgotten most of .map files),
querying and drawing complex geometries only when zoomed in.

>
>
> >"> >>* We're using AJAX to try to minimize bandwidth issues, as many
> >>  >>schools have a narrow pipe.
> >
> >One more thing, I wasn't even sure where to begin once I went to
> >gisforhistory.org. After poking around a bit, I gave up, came back to
> >your email, and found the direct link to the maps. Make the direct
> >link, well, more direct.
>
> Yeah, good point.  The idea with the site is to introduce it to
> teachers first via teacher workshops, so they'd have some kind of
> overview first.

Understood. Nevertheless, making the map link upfront and prominent
might be good karma anyway.

-- 
Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/
Nelson Inst. for Env. Studies, UW-Madison http://www.ies.wisc.edu/
Open Source Geospatial Foundation https://edu.osgeo.org/