[OSM-dev] Rantings about API 0.6

[Brett Henderson]

Iván Sánchez Ortega wrote:
>> Jokes aside, does your bulk importer also implement populating the
>> history tables, making sure that every node referenced by a way (and
>> every node/way/relation referenced by a relation) actually exists, and
>> all these totally useless integrity constraints?
>>     
>
> I'm importing brand new data, so populating the history tables is no big deal.
>   
Perhaps I've misunderstood you but populating the history tables is very 
important.  The history tables are populated even if the entity is being 
inserted for the first time.  In other words the history tables provide 
a complete history of all data, the current tables are simply a snapshot 
containing the latest version of data that also exists in history 
tables.  The osmosis replication providing daily/hourly and minute 
updates doesn't look at the current tables, it only looks at history 
tables.  Therefore if you want your data to show up in mapnik, 
tiles at home, etc you had better populate them.

Brett