[OSM-dev] Relationships - working prototype

[Steve Coast]

On 23 Aug 2007, at 13:47, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> I view the whole thing as an offer to the mapping community - if it
> is not taken up, then it will die and eventually be removed with very
> little harm done. In my eyes, there is very little risk involved with
> just taking relationships on board and seeing how they're used. It is
> not a giant change, really.
>
> I would ask those who oppose the idea of relationships to rethink: If
> you believe that relationships are unnecessary, the best way to prove
> your point is to agree to their deployment and, when the next API
> overhaul is due, just get agreement to drop them based on lack of
> practical use.

[..]

> (c) The idea also needs "political" support. At some point in the not
> so distant future, someone has to actually deploy the stuff on our
> database server,

I used to think Frederik was totally mad because he had all these  
crazy ideas and didn't implement them. To me, that was because he  
didn't believe in them and we'd had so many people wanting OSM to do  
this or that amazing space initiative, but never build the rockets.

What Frederik has done is follow in the footsteps of jburgesss and  
TomH and actually code some stuff up. For that, you gotta pay  
respect. It's super cool that this stuff, which we all basically  
want, has been coded up. Together with the 'remove segments' stuff it  
represents the next great leap for OSM.

There's a bunch of work though. The Postgres port needs to be killed  
as it's deviating wildly from what everyone else is working on. Not  
to say it's no good - but it needs to track the trunk. The trunk -  
there needs to be a branch with Frederiks stuff in and the 'remove  
segments' stuff.

have fun,

SteveC | steve at asklater.com | http://www.asklater.com/steve/