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scotty79today at 3:08 AM3 repliesview on HN

Since we are moving away from print and towards screens, shouldn't we be just using actual globes?


Replies

snowwrestlertoday at 5:08 AM

Yes. Specially, touch enabled screens with dynamically rendered graphics.

The Google Maps app on my iPhone at one point years ago switched to having a globe as its base, like Google Earth. It was great.

Then Google switched it back to Mercator. But you can scroll infinitely to the left or right, so its base is actually now “Mercator rolled into a tube.” Somehow that’s even worse!

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edflsafoiewqtoday at 9:15 AM

The projection you see with your eyes is actually not that great in a sense. You can only see half of the world at a time and it's quite distorted as you move towards the edge. Also on a computer you should be able to "spin" any map projection, not just a globe.

bawolfftoday at 3:22 AM

Screens are still 2D objects requiring projections.

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