[OSM-dev] Why no curves in map data?

[Stefan de Konink]

Udo Giacomozzi wrote:
> Is there a good reason why all map databases seem to be fixed on
> straight lines and do not support some kind of bezier curves? After
> all, streets most of the time have curves and only at junctions or in
> other rare situations have corners.
> 
> Using bezier curves would at the same time lead to more smooth lines
> and reduce way points and are not really hard for renderers nor for
> calculating intersections and similar.
> 
> I realize that the OSM data will continue to use straight lines, but
> I'm just wondering why curved data is deprecated.

I'm working on that one :) There are some 'issues' you need to keep in 
mind. And that is mainly the bbox/within situation. It is possible to 
define a curve that touches a bbox but is not in the bbox.

Next to that I have another method to *significantly* reduce the amount 
of nodes and database transactions on existing data while new data is 
easy to add and semantically related to it. Hopefully this week I finish 
a renderer for it (xfig like).


Stefan