1. commit the not-equal filter to mkgmap ... I'll be quite happy to resubmit the patch. I would like to hear the opinion of others before it is committed though: I'm not sure if this is a good approach to the problem.
I have this set up ready to commit, if no one has any comments.
The include option is something else: as I am neither familiar with the code in question nor am I an experienced Java programmer, this might take somewhat longer. ;-)
It is possible to base styles on other existing styles. This is like taking a style and then adding to it overriding anything that conflicts. See the noname style to see how this is done - you add a 'base-style' option to the info file in the style. This might be not quite what is needed but it worth knowing about. ..Steve