[OSM-talk] highway=unsurfaced

[David Earl]

On 01/10/2007 16:04, Lars Aronsson wrote:
> But a track, as used in English, is also a railroad track and a 
> track on a gramophone record.  Trying to base any defintion on an 
> implicit understanding of the word "track" is a big mistake, 
> because we don't share such an understanding.

I'm afraid that's likely to be true of lots of English words. I don't 
think that's a reason not to use the word, but to define it properly in 
a way that is helpful to non-English speakers.

The actual word is unimportant to the system - it could just be a 
more-language-neutral number (and given the heat these words generate, 
maybe that would be better, with language modules for JOSM etc which 
translate into a user's own language), but you'd still need a more wordy 
definition.

It appears I had misunderstood exactly what track was for, and I am a 
native English speaker.

FWIW, if you say "track" in general English conversation people would 
understand it to mean a small unsurfaced road - farm or forest road or 
similar. Unless the context is known to be about railways, you'd 
generally say "railway track" if that is what you mean. And no one is 
going to confuse  it with a gramophone record in our context, come on! 
It can however also be used to mean a place for racing (cars or dogs), 
but again the context would clarify this if you meant that rather than a 
small unsurfaced road.

David