[Openstreetmap-dev] Re: [Openstreetmap] Shapefiles

[Tom Carden]

Nick Whitelegg wrote:
>  Think also that it would be a good idea at some stage to incorporate
>  polygons into the native "OSM" format. 

Sure, sounds wise.  I'd encourage the re-use of existing XML-y shape 
descriptions and namespaces if appropriate.  (Or at least the liberal 
'borrowing' of conventions from other formats - e.g.SVG - to make 
translation into those formats as simple as possible).

> These could incorporate nodes eg.
>
>  <polygon uid=".." tags="...">
>  <node uid=".." tags=".." />
>  <node uid=".." tags=".." />
>  </polygon>
>   

Not sure there's any need to obsessively re-use the node datatype - 
what's the application for a polygon with separate tags for each point?  
(Still not sure about allowing tags for nodes which are part of 
segments, myself, but it seems that's already happened...)

Tom.