[OSM-dev] Call for A Proper Area Datatype for OSM

[Jochen Topf]

On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 11:03:43AM -0500, Serge Wroclawski wrote:
> I think many people in the community would be in favor of an area element.
> 
> But "Show us the code", in particular, how would a transition work?

Actually the transition is the easy part. Just add support for new area data
type to all software but keep old code around. Then when everything is tested,
have a script run through the database and create new area objects for all
existing objects that look like areas and remove the original object. Leave
everything that can't be converted automatically for a human to convert.

The difficult part is figuring out how the area datatype is supposed to look.
See http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/The_Future_of_Areas

Jochen
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Jochen Topf  jochen at remote.org  http://www.remote.org/jochen/  +49-721-388298