[OSM-talk] Server slowness

[Nick Black]

Hello Kristian,

Thanks for bringing this to the attention of the OSM list.  People at
OSM are aware of GiST indexing and the other marvels of PostGIS.
Numerous tests have been run comparing the current db to both mySQL
spatial and PostGIS.  See:

http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/dev/2006-September/002119.html

and Nick Hill's other posts regarding PostGIS.


> PostGIS, at least (I don't know much about MySQL's spatial abilities) has
> GiST indexing, which is a nested polygon bounding-box index. If you have
> geodata, why do you not store it in a geodatabase and get all the bells
> and whistles for free, instead of trying to come up with a home-grown
> solution?

Because it is more efficient, simpler and fulfills the tasks that OSM
is trying to accomplish.

> Note that in this model, we could also do away with the notion of xml
> being anything but a data transfer format. The important thing is the
> data, not the arbitrary presentation thereof in xml.

Sorry, I dont really follow this point.  OSM XML would still be needed
to distribute data from the API, Planet, etc.  I dont think that the
XML structure (itself always subject to reconsideration) forces the
data structure.  Using  OSGEO Linestrings,  Multilinestrings however,
would force the data-structure.

"Anyone who thinks the necessary technology is already out there to make
OSM more efficient ought to prove it."[1]

[1] - http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/dev/2006-September/002119.html

Nickb