[OSM-talk] Path rendering in the cycleway

[Christoph Eckert]

Hi,

> I think there are two messages here, firstly we should be really careful
> about voting for new features in the core tagging list unless they are
> strictly necessary,

I think we shouldn't vote on tags at all. Instead, we should monitor what gets 
used most by the mappers (see Tagwatch and the tool announced by  
Schuyler Erle).

> and secondly when a tag does get added then we should 
> look for rapid adoption across the main applications.

IMO mappers "abuse" our two main renderers as a control mechanism if they have 
done it right. As Spaetz pointed out, neither mapnik nor osmarender will ever 
paint the same features. It's always up to the renderer to filter/decide 
which attributes it likes.

We could try to set up a further renderer which tries to render everything we 
have on the Map Features page (or in the database). Mappers could then use it 
for control purposes. But it wouldn't be a nice map, I guess :) .

> So, I am not really commenting on the path tag as such (although I could
> because I have used it and do want it to appear on the cycle layer), it is
> more that I want to avoid different dialects of tagging being used to
> pander to different applications. The rule 'render and they will come' will
> become really divisive if different application demand different tagging
> for the same features.

There's this nice "Don't map for the renderers" paradigm. Theoretically, 
mappers should "describe the world" in their tags, regardless if it's 
rendered or even not. But of course you want to see your edits in one of the 
applications. Mappers will always be tempted to use the tags that their 
favourite application(s) understand(s).

What I want to say is that the people behind the cycle map decide which 
features they want to render. This decision is based on their personal taste, 
not on the appearence of tags on the Map Fetures page. And that's just fine.

IMO it would be fine to have paths on the cyclemap (as I have mapped several 
of them and they really belong to biking). But if paths will appear on the 
cyclemap does not depend if paths are listed on the Map Features page.

Cheers,

ce