[Talk-GB] Car boot sale sites

[Mark Goodge]

On 16/07/2021 12:35, Martin Wynne wrote:
> On 16/07/2021 12:21, David Woolley wrote:
> 
>> In OSM terms, I think you mean on a rendering of a map.
> 
> I think that's what most people mean by a "map". The rest is a 
> geographical database, or what most people would call a "list".

I agree. I think that the repeated OSM mantra that "the map is the 
database" is unhelpful, because that's not only not how most users of 
OSM use the term, it's also not how other mapping agencies use the term.

OS maps, for example, are described as different maps. The online OS 
website uses the word "maps" for what the OSM website calls "layers", 
and different printed versions are different maps (Landranger Map, 
Explorer Map, etc). We know, of course, that they're all just renders of 
the same underlying database, but the term "map" is applied to the 
end-user product, not the internal subsystem.

The OS usage is also consistent with how most dictionaries describe the 
word. The key feature of a map, in this context[1], is the cartography - 
that is, the render. Collins, for example, describes a map as "a drawing 
of a particular area such as a city, a country, or a continent, showing 
its main features as they would appear if you looked at them from 
above", and the open source Wiktionary describes it as "A visual 
representation of an area, whether real or imaginary, showing the 
relative positions of places and other features".

I think we're pushing water uphill if we try to insist that the 
database, not the render, is the map. Yes, OSM doesn't have a single 
render, or even (like OS) a relatively small set of renders. Rather, OSM 
is as many maps as you want it to be, and anyone can make their own map 
using OSM data. That is an unusual (in mapping terms) situation to be 
in, and getting that message across is itself a challenge. But I think 
it's a better message to be getting across than plugging away with a 
message that contradicts the normal use of language.

[1] There are other meanings of the word "map", of course, such as array 
maps in programming and the like, and colloquial uses such as a "roadmap 
out of lockdown". But they're not directly relevant here.

Mark