[OSM-dev] Reliability (was Re: New proposed directory layout for planet.openstreetmap.org)

[Datendelphin]

On 05/09/12 23:30, Roland Olbricht wrote:
>
> I think you miss the point. The argumentation "Don't continue an
> established toolchain when a fancy new one exists" is exactly what
> killed the Gnome project. Look for Linus Torwalds' reply in
>
> https://plus.google.com/115250422803614415116/posts/hMT5kW8LKJk
>
> The money quote is:
>
>  
>
> "One of the core kernel rules has always been that we never ever break any
>
> external interfaces."
>
>  
>
> Transferred to our situation this means: we shall carry on the XML
> format forever because there are already a plenty of tools that rely
> on the XML format and they are worth protection, and because this is a
> clear signal to developers that we are a reliable partner.
>
>  
>
I am a big fan of this principle to not break interfaces. However,
applied to planet files, I don't think it means we have to continue to
support two file formats for eternity. It That's also not what the
kernel does. I think the approach is: thing gets switched, but a wrapper
function providing the old interfaces goes in place of the "old"
interface. Applied to planet diffs, that would be a "pbfcat" (meaning
pbf file to xml) utility in my opinion. Pbf files are smaller to
download, so a conversion afterwards would make sense, right?

datendelphin
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