[OSM-talk] Admin borders/separate database

[Martin Koppenhöfer]

Am 05.11.2013 um 22:56 schrieb Clifford Snow <clifford at snowandsnow.us>:

> If we agree that borders are a problem, then what is the best solution?


Do you mean borders are a problem in general, or are there specific problems related to specific borders like those mentioned in this thread? 


> I'd argue that the GIS community has already decided that layers are the solution. QGIS, open source gis software, already handles layers much like ESRI. JOSM even handles layers.


IMHO osm is post-layers ;-)
Fortunately we got rid of layers in osm - not needed any more with free form tagging and a database backend capable to store the whole world.

Layers also have a lot of disadvantages: of course it depends on the implementation, but probably you'd have to insert the same geometry multiple times and they are disjunct, so in case you have to modify something, you'll have to do it in all layers. One of the problems I could imagine with introducing layers in osm is that of stuff ending up in the wrong layer, or just in some layers and not in all necessary layers etc. There is really a lot that can go wrong, the information loss by loosing strong connections between features of different classes not even considered.


> Modifying the editors to handle the complexity of deciding which nodes can be glued to others might be problematic. I'd like to hear from the dev community on which approach makes more sense. 


To keep the freedom of the mappers and the flexibility that comes along, restricting what can be connected should be avoided, at max a warning could be issued.

Cheers,
Martin