[OSM-talk] The Return of the Highway tags and other junk

[guy at graviles-reynolds.org]

Quoting Ben Robbins <ben_robbins_ at hotmail.com>:

> >The reason for staying with nodes is, as Dirk (I think it was) pointed
> >out: these features are, *topologically speaking*, without extent. This
> >isn't OpenTopographicalMap or OpenLanduseMap, it's a streetmap - and
> >streets are about topology.
> 
> The name openstreetmap is irelevent now, as it is a lot bigger project than
> 
> that.  Hence highway=footway.  or abutters, or amenties.
> 
> No. A to scale drawing is just that - a to scale drawing. It's like
> this: http://tinyurl.com/tvltm [gif]. In order to create such a thing
> you need surveying equipment, such as a DGPS and a total station.
> 
> I would call that a map.  But this is irrelevent really.  A gps is a peice 
> of surveying equipmenet, however acurate or unacurate it is.
>
This is the core of the disagreement between us; your apparent inability to 
distinguish between a scale drawing and a map, and it is thus of the greatest 
relavance.
> 
> >A map, and especially a street map, is an abstract way of representing a
> >topological network with certain tradeoffs in accuracy being made in
> >order to increase usability and legibility. Some of these include
> >drawing roads wider than they are in scale, representing physically
> >linear but small features as points, etc.
> 
> Although true that we may widen roads, that arguement doesnt hold up to 
> well.  If we make wides bigger, then why are you proposing making gates 
> infintly smaller?.  I agree a map will make the viewing of it easy and clear
> 
> as well as acurate, but if theres 2 options and each is as clear, then 
> acuracy would be the choice to go for.
>

What we are saying is that if you draw the gate to scale it will be smaller in 
width to the rendered way when rendered. We render the way over scale to make 
it readable on the map. Drawing the gate as a node means that when it is 
rendered its width is expanded to reach across the width of the rendered way. 

Having a scale drawing would mean that you could not render many features such 
as foot paths and single track roads because they would simply be too thin to 
render, let alone fences, hedges and walls.


> Thats true if it was covered with grass textures, and every mole hill 
> laybled, but I am not saying that!.  Im saying to tag features that are 
> already being rendered, such as tracks, but as tracktypes.  While hedges 
> would render as a line, a gate would be as easy to see.   This point seems 
> to inply that the simple formular of the more on the map there is the harder
> 
> it is to read is true.  And its not.  A map is read relative to what you 
> see.  Too few things make it harder to position yourself, while too many 
> make it hard to read the map itself.

We are not saying don't add the features, but use the standard tagging and 
allow the rederers reproduce the information in a manner appropriate to the 
scale and the intended usage of the map.

Guy