[OSM-dev] Area support

[Joachim Zobel]

Am Donnerstag, den 24.07.2008, 09:29 +0200 schrieb Frederik Ramm:
> > The editor is the only instance that has the necessary information.
> But
> > relying on clients to do the right thing will fail in the long run.
> 
> Don't see why.

Because thats what always happens if (especially multiple) clients are
responsible for data integrity. 

But having had time to think it over the main point is that you do not
have a 2 dimensional topology without areas that use (parts of) ways by
reference. Otherwise you can not (reliably) check if two areas have a
common boundary. The situation is similiar (but more complicated) to
ways that actually hold copies of their nodes.

This is however harder to do. So the question is if openstreetmap needs
a 2 dimensional topology.

By the way, a floodfill for landuse would be nice (and less error prone)
in any case.

Sincerely,
Joachim