[OSM-newbies] tertiary dirt roads?

[James Ewen]

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 6:10 PM, Thomas Meller <thomas.meller at gmx.net> wrote:
> I see your point.
> I have a solution for you, but you won't like it.
>
> Do not tag for the renderer.

You know something, I'm getting really sick of that statement. Nothing
personally against you, just the statement.

I can not tag elements in the OSM database without tagging in a way
that someone might construe as being "tagging for the renderer".

If I use a highway tag, I am tagging for the renderer, since just
about every renderer out there will render the highway.

> OK, you won't get in the way of a renderer if you make a map
> available for download onto GPSRs. But that's what you are
> going to do.

I'm not sure where you're headed here, but it looks like you're trying
to give me instructions on making a map. I'm not interested in making
a map. I am interested in creating a database that contains
information about the physical features in my area, specifically in
this discussion, roads. Creating renderer rules to override OSM
tagging is a difficult task. I'm not sure how one would create
renderer rules that would know that one way tagged as a track should
be rendered equivalent to a tertiary road, while another way tagged as
a track should be simply rendered as a track.

I want to be able to describe the roads in a manner that will be of
use to others making use of the data in the database, and I don't care
whether they are rendering maps, comparing datatypes, or some other
esoteric function.

I think we have just about enough different levels of roads available
in the current tags described. However the description associated with
the different levels of roads are mostly UK centric, and do not
encompass a large enough description to fit roads around the world.

I could keep away from "tagging for the renderer" by creating a
completely new set of highway tags that have descriptions that match
road types in my area, but that is counter productive.

Perhaps I should just give up on trying to educate people about the
fact that there are many different road descriptions for similar
function roadways around the world, and simply tags ways as I see fit,
damn the OSM descriptors.

James
VE6SRV