[OSM-talk] map display www.openstreetmap.org

[elvin ibbotson]

> On 10 Oct 2008, at 15:06, Jonathan Bennett wrote:
>
>> elvin ibbotson wrote:
>>> Steve,
>>>
>>> It looks like fakeSteveC or someone is pretending to be you and  
>>> posting
>>> elitist, patronising, condescending rubbish in an apparent  
>>> attempt to
>>> make you look foolish. I look forward to it being demonstrated that
>>> 'most people don't know what coordinates are'.
>>>
>>> elvin ibbotson
>>
>> "Most people" is not:
>>
>> Most people on this mailing list
>> Most people who contribute to OSM
>> Most people involved in GIS
>> Most people who know some programming
>>
>> "Most people" is the man, woman or child in the street, many of whom
>> will never have picked up a paper map, and will certainly never have
>> tried to take coordinates from one.
>>
>> Got a printed UK Road Map? Open it to any page -- where are the  
>> coordinates?
>>
>> -- 
>> Jonathan (Jonobennett)

Coordinates have been around a lot longer than OSM, GIS or  
programming. people learn about them at school where they are taught  
mathematics and geography. Most people go (or went) to school.  
Besides, this is the OSM talk forum and we are talking about people  
who have taken the trouble to go to the OSM website. Also we are  
talking about 'most people' not 'many' people. Finally, I reached for  
the nearest road atlas which happens to be the Ordnance Survey one  
and has not just the A,B,C/1,2,3  page coordinates used by the  
gazetteer at the back but British National Grid coordinates too! Some  
pages also show the scale, though I imagine this will be lost on most  
of the ignorant masses:-)