[OSM-dev] Reverse geocoding - nearest nodes vs areas

Marcus Wolschon Marcus at Wolschon.biz
Tue Aug 11 05:29:26 BST 2009


On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 12:13 AM, Michael Handerek<osm at handerek.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I played a little bit with different ideas and concepts to realize a
> reverse geocoding tool. I also found some existing implementations like
> the namefinder and the navigation subsystem of traveling sales man. I
> noticed that all solutions search for tagged nodes and ways in specified
> max. distance.

See the AdvancedAddressDB. Areas are used whereever possible.
Nodes are just a fallback.

> In my opinion, checking if a point is part of an area geometry is more
> precise than setting a marginal distance for the nearest tagged nodes,
> isn't it? But what about the performance aspect, nearest node vs area?

Performance-wise I am building an index of names to polygon-ways/nodes
to avoid such queries. (In Traveling Salesman)

Marcus




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