File talk:Map Hudson County New Jersey municipalities.gif

This is the discussion/talk page for Image:Map Hudson County New Jersey municipalities.gif.

Created to verify performance

This file is purposely being maintaining in GIF format (along with a PNG-format version) for longitudinal studies of Wikipedia performance, of PNG versus GIF format. Such studies are needed to avoid OR (original-research) claims of performance, but rather, show actual live examples in Wikipedia-image displays compared over a period of years. This image is intended to co-exist as a GIF version of the equivalent PNG-format image for years (not days) to compare performance while evolving Wikimedia software is modified over those years. -Wikid77 05:42, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Version names

There are multiple formats (GIF & PNG) for the county map:

• GIF format: Image:Map Hudson County New Jersey municipalities.gif
• PNG format: Image:Hudson County, New Jersey Municipalities.png.

The 2 versions are intended to co-exist for years, as the long-term performance of the evolving Wiki software is studied. -Wikid77 05:42, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Performance comparison

GIF format at 130px.

PNG format at 130px.

In August 2007, the GIF file stored as 22 kb, while the PNG stored as 20 kb (10 % less). However, when displayed as resized to 350px thumbnails, the GIF file displayed as 24kb while the PNG file resized for 350 px displayed as 65 kb (PNG about 2.7× slower than GIF), offering further evidence that such a map should NOT be re-converted into slower PNG format from GIF.

Even for a smaller thumbnail size of 130px, the GIF file was nearly 2.3× times faster/thinner than the PNG file (see properties/size tabs of the 2 displayed thumbnails at right), with the resized PNG image using 16614 bytes and GIF using 7108b: ratio 16614 / 7108 = 2.337.

Studies from 2006 showed similar performance on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons: GIF files were typically displayed 2.7× (or 3×) times faster than PNG files at the same image width. Images displayed on Wikimedia Commons showed the same performance difference (GIF nearly 3× faster than PNG), as though Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons used the same image-display software, for resizing image files. -Wikid77 05:58, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Label "incorporated"

Townships in New Jersey are "incorporated." This map [Hudson County] is misleading by using the label "incorporated place" to refer to the other types of municipalities. Unincorporated parts of counties are more common down South and out West; where there are places with no local government where the County itself administers services. Not true in NJ. 204.52.215.13 18:39, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

25-Aug-2007: I have verified that NJ townships have been incorporated for over 300 years (see: "Newark was incorporated as a township in 1693" in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica article, webpage: www.1911encyclopedia.org/Newark,_New_Jersey). The label "incorporated place" could be changed to "City or Town" for this Hudson County map. Thanks for the note, and I realize there are other Wiki "facts" at least 300 years out-of-date. It's a challenge to get people to focus on long-term concerns. -Wikid77 23:27, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Other topics

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