[OSM-dev] Coastlines and water - contact and technical

[Ben Supnik]

Hi Y'all,

First, does anyone know the ongoing status of the coastline error 
checker?  The error check appears not to have run on newer data than 
May, and the wiki page indicates no contact since June.  Does anyone 
know either what the status of the error checker is or who to contact 
about it?

Second, a technical question: from what I read, Mapnik does not yet 
support multipolygons.

My question is...how does Mapnik know the "order" of islands and lakes 
inside land?  I was looking at an island inside a lake...both ways are 
closed clockwise looping ways (the outer one being water and the inner 
one being land).  There are no layer keys on the ways.

Is there some other clue that can be used to determine the nesting 
relationship when the relation is not considered?  (Perhaps a simple 
containment or size ordering is used?)

Thanks!
Ben