I may have done something terrible or something good.
To get some of you up to speed:
- I’m not a web programmer…or developer……
- I have been woefully ignorant of web mapping
- I decided to learn some leaflet by mapping bike lanes.
- There’s more discussion if you dig around up here
So I pulled every bike lane in Chattanooga as were defined in OpenStreetMap. I learned a few things – mainly was OSM was greatly out of date and greatly wrong in spots. That’s too be expected and is no one’s fault.
What I’ve decided to do is to break the lanes up into something more digestible so I pulled out the Riverwalk, Greenway, and I’m now pulling out Separated Lanes (Cycleway:right = Track). Maybe by the time I publish this they may be on the map. Of course I have the Camp Jordan 2 mile loop. There’s Stringers Ridge MTB trails……Plus the bike rental spots aren’t up to date either. Which is fine – You can’t eat an elephant all at once. Not that I would eat an elephant.
So after my last post I had a few people go “DON’T HAND CODE YOUR LEAFLET TEMPLATE IT TAKES TOO LONG AND YOU WILL HATE YOUR LIFE”. People suggested various AI….things. Answer generators? BS Generators?. I’m skeptical. I know you can get right answers and I know you can get wrong answers that look right. I was stuck at the end of the last post on how to display my Geojson files. I had written these half elaborate Overpass Queries to download data, rip them through GDAL, and create Geojson Files.
Since I’m in a learning mode and I’ve been using Duck Duck Go as my search engine – I decided to give their AI a try. They appear to be using ChatGPT. I want to say at some point it was Claude. Maybe they use both. Maybe I’m hallucinating. I was hung up on Whether you “fetch” the Geojson or use Jquery. Maybe Both….or neither……I know nothing of Java script…..well I know enough to hurt myself. So lets ask the great AI in the sky:
- “Create a leaflet Template”: I got a very vague answer on how to build a template of anything.
- “Create a leaflet Map”: I received something similar to what you find on the leaflet website
- “Create a leaflet map and add a geojson file”: I started getting different answers. One was adding a file. One was hand coding the Geojson file within leaflet (a Geojson full of points because points are easy)
- “Create a leaflet map using jquery and add a geojson file”: Now we are getting answers I recognize
- “Create a leaflet map using jquery and add a geojson file and symbolize it”. I almost have what I want.
- “Create a leaflet map using jquery and add a geojson file and symbolize it and add Layer Control”. I have an answer I can’t check or replicate if you made me – it does what I want it to do though. So I feel like I’ve cheated a bit.
- “Create a leaflet map using jquery and add a point geojson file and symbolize it”. I received a plausible answer but it was nothing like the earlier answers.
I ended up with something usable. I had to do some more searching to figure out some other random problem. It’s good enough for me to now get lines and points displayed. It will keep me busy if I get bored.
So did I do a thing. I jumped into an area where I am not the most knowledgeable and produced an answer. My one problem with GIS is everything is a nail and GIS is the hammer. Suddenly I’ve got his jackhammer hitting nails. I’m still not a web mapping expert. It’s not a paying project. It gave me an idea and got me over a hump. I had two working examples and the internet to search so I would have gotten there. I’d prefer my knowledge base come from an expert in the field vs something like this. I’ve already had clients go “I’ve used AI to do this thing” and the thing has never worked.
Several yeas ago a guy I had done some work for called me and wanted to tell me he was starting a consulting business. He was sorry if he wrecked my business but – he really wanted to do this. So I said “If you wreck my 15 year business it was time for me to move on. Good luck”. Never heard anything from him again.
Money for nothing and your chicks for free is how the song goes.
Next up – I crack open the index.html file using VIM and copy 12 lines of code and change it to do something I need it to do…when I have the time.
