[OSM-talk] Residential areas

[David Earl]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: talk-bounces at openstreetmap.org
> [mailto:talk-bounces at openstreetmap.org]On Behalf Of Andy Allan
> Sent: 03 November 2006 12:12
> To: Etienne
> Cc: talk at openstreetmap.org
> Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] Residential areas
>
>
> On 11/1/06, Etienne <80n80n at gmail.com> wrote:
> I agree that abutters is a poor implementation and was only
> invented at the time because we had no mechanism to describe or
> reder areas.
>
>
> If we dump the rendering of abutters many existing maps are going
> to lose some detail next time they are rendered.  Is this acceptable?
>
>
> It'll have to happen eventually, but people may get upset if it
> happens without warning. How about marking it as deprecated on
> the wiki
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Map_features#Abutters
> straight away, then making it an easily-turned-back-on option in
> osmarender a couple of months later, then ignoring abutters
> completely thereafter? Or is OSM still small enough that things
> can be changed more quickly?

The problem is abutters on *segments*, yes?

Since Etienne proposed a tagging for Ways to replace this, how feasible
would it be to run a pass over the database which adds the new tag to those
ways which have segments with abutters, splitting ways which have marked
segments only covering part of the way?

Rather than residential=yes, which would, I think proliferate as
<anytype>=yes, why not simply retain abutters=<whatever> but for *ways* not
segments.

Would this change not also be the opportunity to abolish segments! That
obviously needs more time and thought, but the two seem to me to be
different manifestations of the same problem. So I agree that deprecating
abutters *on segements* (or anyting else on segements) seems the way forward
to me for now, once a firm alternative has been agreed.

Dave