[OSM-talk] Another point in support of ways as ordered lists

[Nick Whitelegg]

Have been encountering numerous strange effects trying to convert OSM data to 
a base map for Garmin devices. Almost all of these arise from imperfections 
in the data:

- ways not being *ordered* lists of segments
- segments not all aligned in the same direction along a way

Admittedly I've been fairly lax about point 2 to date (though not from now 
on...), though I have always tried to follow point 1.  

The Polish format understood by cgpsmapper treats ways as polylines of points, 
which is the crucial point.

ISTR a discussion about removing segments from the data model coming up at 
some point,  and changing the data models to nodes, ways (e.g. a one way 
section of a street, or a named section of A road) and super-ways (a whole 
street or a whole A road).  Such a model would reduce the impact of bad data 
significantly, and I would be in support of any such proposal if it was 
practical (which, given we've got so far on segments, it might not be)

Nick