[OSM-talk] administrative boundaries and is_in

[Karl Newman]

On Jan 10, 2008 12:53 AM, Abigail Brady <morwen at evilmagic.org> wrote:

> On Jan 9, 2008 11:50 PM, Karl Newman <siliconfiend at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I understand why numbers are used instead of names. My question is why
> > are there no odd numbers listed? It just looked strange.
> >
>
> Future-proofing.  It leaves gaps so that if new units are invented that
> fit between existing ones you can make them be '3' or '5', etc, without
> having to renumber everything else.
>
> --
> Abi
>

Really? Trying to future-proof against hierarchies that have been around for
(in some cases) millenia? Ooh, I know, we could have negative numbers to
indicate planet, solar system, galaxy, etc. For future interstellar use.

Karl
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20080110/5111c155/attachment.html>