[OSM-talk] Id stability

[Maarten Deen]

On Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:21:44 +0200, Frederik Ramm wrote:

> (Two or three people have also started tagging OSM objects with UUID
> tags but I don't think that that's anything more than database bloat.
> I think that about 99.9% of UUID tags in the database come from a
> building import where somebody automatically assigned an UUID to 
> every
> last garden shed. Not useful.)

Even though, it might be the best solution. The other solution would be 
that everybody who wants to use the object for their purpose adds their 
own home-made tag to it. And that certainly would be a database bloat.

Of course you would add a UUID tag only to objects that are actualy 
referenced. And then you would need some way to enforce uniqueness. All 
reaons why it is fraught with pitfalls.

I've got a wiki that links certain localities to the OSM map. I use the 
addr: fields for that. They are unique (at least for my purpose), but 
this also does not guarantee 100% continuity.

Maarten