add browser support to PBF parser?

[nrenner]

Note: this is not an actual request to merge, just as a reference

I did a quick and dirty test for using pbfParser in the browser (not caring about Node.js).
Example: http://nrenner.github.io/osm-read/

I'm thinking about discontinuing osm-pbf.js and switching to osm-read because it's based on ProtoBuf.js and already supports reading some metadata, but:

1. While my test is using shims and replacements for the node-specific parts, I would rather factor these out and have a neutral core. Browser support could then be added here or as a separate project. What do you think?
2. Do you care about the GPL license and it's strong copyleft? I would prefer a permissive license like MIT, 2-clause BSD or Apache License (used by ProtoBuf.js) that doesn't require other projects using the library to also use GPL.

[marook]

Wow... it looks like you put a lot of effort into adapting osm-read :)

regarding 1.: I've written osm-read with a node.js environment in mind. But I think browser support would be a valuable extension for the current implementation. I'm totally with you that the strong reliance on node.js APIs should be refactored into a defined abstraction layer. To make things easier to understand I would recommend doing this step by step. I will accept pull requests for such refactorings even if they are just a part of the final solution. The code must only pass it's tests at any time.

regarding 2.: I don't have much experience with licensing. I know that the GPL license is very restricting for reuse in non open source environments. I could agree to change the license to LGPL. What do you think?

[nrenner]

I'm not a licensing expert either and I don't know which philosophy is better and don't want to convince anyone. I just decided to go for a permissive license and want to license my project under MIT, but that means I can't use any GPL libraries.

I guess LGPL would be fine though, so if you don't mind, changing the license to LGPL would be great. Otherwise I still can continue with osm-pbf.js, so it's not such a big deal.

[marook]

I changed the licensing to LGPL with version 0.3.2.

[nrenner]

Thanks a lot!

Closing, proper implementation will follow in step by step PRs.