[Tagging] surface=ground/dirt/earth

Fernando Trebien fernando.trebien at gmail.com
Thu Mar 13 01:37:58 UTC 2014


Hello,

There are 3 values for surface (ground, dirt and earth) that are
described as "probably equivalent" in the wiki. The pictures tell a
slightly different story: ground seems to allow the presence of
"grass" along with "usage marks" (car or pedestrian tracks), as does
earth, whereas dirt seems to include no grass and include the
possibility of "mud" after rainfall.

TagInfo shows that "earth" is significantly less used than the other
two. Could we officially recommend against that value then? Having so
many equal things makes translation (and teaching) much harder than
necessary, and I don't see when an application would differentiate
between these values.

I tried searching for their definitions in English dictionaries, but
they point to each other as synonyms. "Earth" is sometimes cited as a
"poetic description" of soil. "Ground" could describe anything from
"soil" to harder surfaces. I believe the most accurate description
would actually be something along the lines of "bare soil" (confirmed
by comparing results in Google Images).

-- 
Fernando Trebien
+55 (51) 9962-5409

"The speed of computer chips doubles every 18 months." (Moore's law)
"The speed of software halves every 18 months." (Gates' law)



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