[Tilesathome] The non-rendering of glaciers

[Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason]

On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 5:42 PM, Ed Loach <ed at loach.me.uk> wrote:
>> 1.
>> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Tag:natural%3Dglacier#Comments
>
> While I notice the above is marked for post-vote cleanup, I checked whether
> it was in Map Features or not. It is, though there it shows as applying to
> areas or nodes (for peaks permanently under ice) but not ways, whereas the
> above page shows the tag as applying to ways and areas (but not nodes). I
> guess the sensible thing is to assume it can apply to any of the three (and
> update Map Features accordingly), although it looks like the patch only
> renders the "way/area" glaciers? Will the node versions just not render, or
> will they render based on some different style definitions?

My patch only applies to ways and areas and will not render a node
marked as natural=glacier, rendering nodes with that tagging is
outside the scope of this patch.

Generally though such a node should be rendered similarly to
place=locality, i.e. when within an eponymous area the user might
choose the placement of the name as it is rendered on the map by
making a node within the area, as you can do with amenity=parking now.

Glaciers themselves are always areas when properly marked however, the
example you cite of a peak permanently under ice wouldn't necessarily
be a glacier. A glacier is a slow-moving river of ice or a massive ice
sheet from which these ice rivers flow (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier#Types_of_glaciers) and is as such
always a formation that covers a significant area.

So I don't see glacier nodes being used for anything other than
rendering aesthetics.