[Tagging] Proposal: Sunset ref=* on ways in favor of relations

[Michael Reichert]

Hi,

Am 2015-11-06 um 11:24 schrieb Paul Johnson:
> […]
> *The fix: * I propose a goal of December 31, 2016 to eliminate ref=* as a
> method to describe an overlying route; this should be more than ample time
> for existing data consumers to catch up on doing a move and ensure data
> consistency for routes.  Kill the dinosaur:
> 
>    - Deprecate ref=* on ways from having anything to do with the routes
>    they run over, use relations instead and phase out the use of
>    route-describing refs on ways (be it removal of the tag or replacement of
>    the key's value with a ref that actually applies to the way instead of the
>    route).

I strongly oppose this.

Usings relations for something which can be expressed using tags on ways
is usually a bad idea.

(1) Data users have to parse relations (i.e. need more processing time
and memory). Currently you only have to import ways (and nodes are used
to build the geometry if you convert OSM data into OGC simple features)
into your data structure (e.g. a PostGIS database) if you want to get
all road segments of German motorway "A 1". You just have to query the
ref column (maybe use LIKE opeator or something similar because A 1 and
A 61 share some road segments).

(2) Mappers have to work with relations. This makes editing OSM data
more difficult. We shold keep editing easy and the entrance hurdle as
low as possible. Mappers (and developers, too) are the most important
and most valueable resource at OSM.

(3) Relations break easily. We already have enough work to get all those
multipolygons repaired which are broken by newbies (and experienced)
mappers not to mention all those public transport relations which have
been broken sometimes for months or years.

>    - Stop rendering this key and instead render the relations in opencarto
>    and other featured layers.

Which key is rendered and which not, is decided by those people spending
days and weeks of time into OSM Carto. They usually decide which tags
they render and which not by looking which tags are in use and which not.

I think that we will still use ref=* over route relations at OSM in the
next two years.

Best regards

Michael


-- 
Per E-Mail kommuniziere ich bevorzugt GPG-verschlüsselt. (Mailinglisten
ausgenommen)
I prefer GPG encryption of emails. (does not apply on mailing lists)


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 819 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/attachments/20151107/5071be2b/attachment.sig>