Introduction

When I started writing this book, the best way to use Mapbox maps on the iOS platform was the Mapbox iOS SDK. While the SDK itself was pretty powerful, it was based on raster tiles and was significantly slower that modern vector map frameworks such as the Apple-owned MapKit. There were other disadvantages too; for example, it was messy to integrate into a project and generated tons of warnings.

Note

Don't confuse the Mapbox GL mobile framework with Mapbox GL JS, which is aimed at web developers. All the recipes in this chapter are for Mapbox GL iOS.

Luckily for us, Mapbox introduced a new mobile SDK that replaced the now deprecated Mapbox iOS SDK. It's called Mapbox GL, and it has significant strengths compared to its predecessor. Mapbox GL is written in C++, based on the OpenGL ES 2.0 technology, and is capable of displaying pixel-perfect vector maps without antialiasing or blurring issues. It's hardware accelerated and optimized for mobile hardware.

I considered introducing both...