[OSM-talk] Mapping everything as areas

[Roy Wallace]

On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 3:03 AM, John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> A thought occurred to me, that people are only planning to use areas
> because editors don't easily allow for widths to be entered
> graphically.

To some extent, perhaps... but the real reason is because the inherent
nature of these objects in 2D (well, lat/long) is as an area.

> I wonder how much work it would be if you could draw the way and then
> stretch it sideways to fill out the extact area you wanted covered and
> then the editor simply attaches the width of the way as a tag etc.

Nice idea, BUT then you are limited to a series of rectangles. In some
situations, I think that will be too restrictive for not much gain.

Of course, both options can and should be available to mappers!