[OpenLayers-Dev] Adding client-side scale control

[Ian Mayo]

Hi all,
I'm keen to add some features to OpenLayers to support my specific
requirement, and am looking for some contracted help.

Initially I'm going to try to find a developer through the
rentacoder.com site.  I've had around 70% success rate there over the
last couple of years, and see if I can find a competent developer -
starting him/her off with a relatively simple new feature. then
increase in complexity as my trust/confidence increases....

The first feature I'm considering is adding a client-side scale
control.  I've created such a control in Java (see
http://www.debrief.info/features/snail.gif), but am not yet up to
speed in JavaScript or the OpenMap architecture...

So, here are my questions [at last...]
- do you OpenLayers experts believe that such a scale can be drawn
dynamically at each viewport refresh at an acceptable speed?
- should this new feature be implemented as a layer?
- does OpenMap already contain functionality to automagically decide
on a suitable set of units/scale step size for the current viewport?
- is there a clever way for the user to control the location of the
scale (TL, TR, BL, BR) from within OpenLayers?  Or is the only way to
either specify it it the original html declaration/controls placed in
the html "wrapper" functionality.

Any other constraints that I should bear in mind or recommendations
for a tidy implementation would also be appreciated.

cheers,
Ian.