[OSM-dev] Topologicial correctness in OSM

Nicola Ranaldo ranaldo at unina.it
Wed Jan 17 20:42:32 GMT 2007


On Wednesday 17 January 2007 20:33, Nick Black wrote:
> I know that shapefiles store topology, but I dont know much about the
> details of it.
>
> http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0401/topo.html

Pleae check  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapefile#Topology_and_shapefiles, 
it seems some formats does not support topology.

[...]
> I'm loathed to start another format war, but OSM's model has a lot
> going for it - and has considerably more documentation than Mapinfo's
> format!

You are right, howewer we lack:

1) hierarchycal ways
2) advanced support for areas

As the first may be a long term goal, the second is necessary to elevate osm 
to a full featured model. Actually we cannot define areas with inner holes 
while the other formats do.

	Niko





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