[OSM-talk] Was the deletion of Null Island reasonable?

[Maarten Deen]

> Op 10-01-2022 08:23 schreef stevea <steveaosm at softworkers.com>:
> 
>  
> On Jan 9, 2022, at 11:01 PM, Maarten Deen <mdeen at xs4all.nl> wrote:

> >> Null island is unique.  It is OSM's "origin."  There is only one of these.
> > 
> > There are many things unique. The question is: does it serve a purpose. Does a node being there provide some service that is needed and can not otherwise be made.
> 
> I've said it serves the purpose of "ah, HERE is the origin every single datum in our map uses."  That really is something.  It's the 

You know that already because it is point 0,0. You don't need a node there to know that.

And by the way, how does this relate to "Null" which in computer science usually means "not existing" or "missing".
0 is not Null.

> Well, it IS where OSM says Earth Starts Here, along with a variety of 

And again, I don't agree with that, again because it is not OSM that says that. It is not OSM that invented the crossing of the equator and the 0 meridian as coordinate 0,0. We merely use it the same as everybody else because it would be foolish to invent something new.

But then I come back to my point: what purpose does having a node at that point serve? Being the origin of the coordinate system does not require a node to be there.

Regards,
Maarten