[Imports] Import Guidance

[Andy Allan]

On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 2:55 PM, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:

> Heh heh. German has a figure of speech, "den Bock zum Gärtner machen" (make
> the goat a gardener) which seems to apply here ;-)

:-)

>> You can find the .pdf file here:
>> http://www.thunderflames.org/gis/Import%20Guidance.pdf
>
> When you talk about topology I'd add that *if* someone should import
> boundaries (nonwithstanding that you said they shouldn't), the same is true
> here - don't import lots of touching areas, instead import boundary lines
> and make them into proper multipolygons.

Good point.

> Also, you talk a lot about "OpenStreetMap ha a strict so-and-so rule" which
> I think gives a slightly wrong picture; I'd pepper this with a lot of
> "normally", "generally", "usually", etc. (because it is well possible that
> someone does something good that violates on or two of those strict rules).

It's something I've tried to avoid - the 0.1% option. As techies we've
got a tendency to hedge things ("usually one object per real-world
feature"), but I get tempted here to sacrifice nit-picking accuracy
for clarity. After all, give someone an inch and they take a mile! I
like to think that by the time you know these rules can be bent then
you'll know under what circumstances that would apply and this
introduction wouldn't be relevant.

Interested in what others think on this topic. If there's anything in
particular that stands out as being unfairly misleading let me know.

Cheers,
Andy