[Talk-transit] [Spam] Re: Modelling complex stations

[Simon Ward]

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 11:54:56PM +0000, Shaun McDonald wrote:
> It is much easier to work out what else goes together by using a  
> relation, rather than the is_in tag. The is_in tag is a bad tag as we  
> are dealing with geo data, so we already know what it is in, if all the 
> boundaries are in the data. Relations are much better for linking  
> related data. Imported in the right way, you can get two way  
> relationships setup correctly.

My take:

The is_in tag has a freeform value.  is_in=Manchester could mean one of
many things:  Is this Manchester, UK, or one of the many other
Manchesters[1]?  It defines a relationship between the object and the
area, but can be ambiguous.

Better in the Manchester case is to have a relation linking things in
(that particular) Manchester.  The relation unambiguously defines the
object.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_(disambiguation)

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall
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