I’ve been deep into some esoteric mapping code lately. It keeps my brain occupied, which is good, since driving does not. The physical act of driving is an autonomic skill where I get into a mode of total awareness of my surroundings as I progress through the sludge of life until my day ends.
Programming, on the other hand, is a vibrant skill requiring my brain to create solutions to new challenges that I create! My current obsession is to allow the user, i.e. you, to create a Google spreadsheet with places, and then plot them on an interactive map where you can update them, edit them or delete them, in real time.
You’ll be able to add any fields you like to the spreadsheet such as description, address, website or whatever and the program will incorporate that into editable entities on the map. The only required columns are a name for the place and the lat/lng fields, which are automatically maintained.
The map itself is open source, no Google map here! Stay tuned and I will offer up some examples shortly. For instance, Steph would like to create a spreadsheet of all of Suburban Propane’s customer tanks around the valley with statistics about each tank. It then becomes both a database and a routing tool for Dusty, the delivery driver.
