[OSM-talk] keys

[Dean Earley]

Etienne wrote:
> On 6/12/06, *Dean Earley* <dean at earlsoft.co.uk 
> <mailto:dean at earlsoft.co.uk>> wrote:
> 
>      > It also occurs to me that it might be reasonable to allow
>     namespaces to
>      > have some structure, so that, for example, Map Features can have
>      > regional variants.  mf.us:highway=freeway, mf.de:highway=autobahn
>     .  This
>      > would allow local variations while still retaining some grouping
>     of all
>      > those schemes that have allegiance to the Map Features church.
> 
>     Personally. I think this is way overcomplicating things.
>     It means renderers HAVE to know EVERY possibility in EVERY language to
>     be able to show all data. This (IMO) limits a renderer to showing tags
>     by authors using the same language.
> 
> 
> Renderers don't have to know every possible permutation of tag.  They 
> only have to know the tags that belong to the scheme that the user has 
> chosen.  If you don't use a namespace scheme then renderers *will* HAVE 
> to know EVERY possibility in EVERY language.  That is why you need 
> namespaces - so that renderers do not have to know about every 
> possibility, they just have to know about the one that they are designed 
> to know about.  If a renderer is designed/built to understand schema x 
> then it can just ignore schemas y and z.

But then you ignore anything done in a different/unrecognised language...

 From the example you gave, I'd already need to handle 
mf.us:highway=freeway, mf.de:highway=autobahn as well as the english 
version.

>     We do however need some standard system across all languages
>     (1,2,3,4,5,6?) 
> 
> 
> 
> What does (1,2,3,4,5,6?) mean?

Exactly.
It could be 1 (highway, autobahn, motorway, autoroute, freeway, etc..) 
increasing as the roads/highways/routes get smaller. At least it is more 
international than named road types.

-- 
Dean Earley, Dee (dean at earlsoft.co.uk)

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