[OSM-talk] Castles and Palaces

[Ekkehart at gmx.de]

Hi!


> I am not quite shure if this is pointless or not. I mean, we are
> actually lacking an english term to distinguish between some types of
> castles and you suggest to select a random english word (that more or
> less matches what you want to express) to define it? Help me: Why
> don't we use the established scientific term? I think we could do
> that. Even if this science-lingo word looks exactly like the evil
> german word 'burg'.

I suggest to define a _descriptive_ English term for a certain classification of building - just like it is done for all major topics.

It is highway=motorway, not highway=Autobahn which would be exact, it is highway=secondary and not highway=Kreisstrasse, even though there are is no no primary/secondary designation system in Germany. The tags describe a class of objects and the exact meaning is derived within local context.

You may construct some meaning for "Burg", but according to the tagging scheme in France the same thing needs to be tagged a chateaux fort. The word "castle" may be ambiguous, but I have seen castles with defense works in England and I have seen castles with purely residential character. So it makes sense to have a tag that describes those classes in any country.
When we come to fortress, this is a term that matches very well in all countries, so why call it a Festung in Germany, a fortress in England and something else in France? And I can't see any way a weird combination of foreign terms like "Burg;Schloss" should be better than a descriptive term of the actual meaning.

bye
      Nop

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