[Tilecache] Newb questions about Tilecache

[David Raasch]

Greetings All!

OK, I've built an OpenLayers mapping application "on-the-side" for my
day-job.  I'm giving users the option to view the map using tiles from the
following TMS sources:

OpenStreetMap (Mapnik)  -- http://a.tile.openstreetmap.org
OpenAerialMap --
http://tile.openaerialmap.org/tiles/1.0.0/openaerialmap-900913/
OpenStreetMap (Tiles at Home) -- http://tah.openstreetmap.org/Tiles/tile/
(my personal favorite of the three!)


Anyways, although a lot of tiles load very quickly (more quickly than Google
Maps' tiles, which is what a previous incarnation of my app used to use)...
Frequently I'll see anywhere from 1-3 tiles take quite a long time to load
(on the order of 20-30 seconds).

So, after doing some reading in the archives of the OpenLayers list and this
one, I thought I'd ask a few questions, just to make sure I'm not
misunderstanding something:


1) I'm under the impression that Tilecache will give me the ability to store
frequently called-for map tiles from one of these TMS sources in a disk
cache on our webserver, so that my application won't have to directly
request those same tiles again and again from that TMS source / server.
(And, hopefully, this would speed up performance somewhat too.)  Is that
correct?

2) If that's true, then can a single installation of TileCache be configured
so that it stores tiles from any / all of those three TMS sources?

3) I managed to install Python and Tilecache on an IIS / Windows webserver
here late yesterday.  Is there any other software that I would need in order
to do what I am suggesting?

4) Can you point me to any info on how I'd alter the tilecache.cfg file so
as to "point to" one of those data sources (or all three!) ??



Thanks very much!

-= Dave =-