Building CartoType for Linux

CartoType is written in standard C++ and will compile using CLANG and GCC. Its output is a bitmap in memory, which you can display on any device if you know how your proposed device handles bitmaps. The license allows you to distribute it as part of a binary package, not as source for on-platform compilation. Linux users tend to expect binary packages, so this should not be a problem.

To obtain a Linux library you can simply take the source code, which is supplied to Cartotype licensees, and compile it (using a script provided as part of the CartoType distribution) on the target you need. If you need the library pre-compiled for any reason please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The library being binary, it obviously matters what kind of processor you're using (Intel, AMD64, ARM, SPARC and so on).

Using CartoType on Linux

The simplest way to use CartoType on Linux is the high-level C++ CFramework API. It wraps all the various objects you need - the map, style sheet, fonts, and routing profiles - and gives you a simple set of functions for drawing the map, interacting with it and searching it, calculating routes and performing turn by turn navigation. The only platform-dependent code you need to write, apart from your application logic, is a routine to draw a CartoType bitmap to your display surface.

Sample code using GLFW

There is a simple demonstration program using the GLFW framework.

The prerequisites are:

• The CartoType Linux evaluation library, libcartotype.a, which is part of the evaluation SDK; you need to link the demo to it.
• The GLFW windowing library, which you will need to install on your Linux computer:

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install libglfw3
  sudo apt-get install libglfw3-dev

• You may need to install OpenGL libraries on your Linux computer. I use Mesa, which may already be on your computer. If not, there are various ways to install Mesa. There is some guidance here: https://itsfoss.com/install-mesa-ubuntu/.

Sample code using Qt

The source code of the CartoType Maps App is also available. It uses Qt and runs on Windows, mac OS and Linux.