[OSM-talk] is_in and similar tags

[John Smith]

--- On Tue, 28/7/09, David Earl <david at frankieandshadow.com> wrote:

> It is still *very* helpful to have is_in present though. It
> is much easier to present this information in a search than
> to do polygon tests which requires a whole new algorithm
> (desirable though that is), and of course, boundaries are
> nowhere near complete, and you often know in which region a
> place is without knowing the exact boundary.

Two different issues, one is presentation the other is simply describing something. A lot of software repackages information into it's own optimised form, and so I don't think it's a valid argument to keep the information when processing the information into a suitable presentable form would do the same thing.