On 13/08/2009 18:20, Norbert Hoffmann wrote: > David Earl wrote: > >> So I say: keep it simple, keep it compatible. Carry on with the simple, >> established tags we already have, but just clarify the default use >> classes which apply to each highway tag, PER COUNTRY, and tag exceptions >> to these according to evidence on the ground. Add specific legal >> designations only where expert knowledge is available and different from >> the default interpretation. > > I say: forget all defaults and store all those values in the database. > Those only partly documented "defaults" are the cause of the discussed > problems. The process of tagging may be as simple as it is now. Let the > user choose which country he is in (or which country's rules are in his > head while editing) and than the editor can add those defaults. > > What we win with this method is, that the apps working with the data need > not know anything about country borders or specific legals and changing > some default in the WIKI will no longer invalidate data.
So what you're saying is that - each editor and data consumer has to have its own set of national rules and defaults rather than defining them centrally (so inevitably they'll end up different); - we have to massively increase the amount of data we store by saying for every road that it is open 24 hours a day (because some aren't) and has a 44 tonne weight limit (or whatever it is by default in your country) except for the few cases where it isn't; all cycleways don't permit llama pack animals (because some in Peru do) and all motorways explicitly do or don't permit horse drawn vehicles. - we can't type a simple tag any more, we have to go via a menu or a form because there are so many of them. Every highway would have to carry maybe thirty or forty tags giving use cases, and every time we realise we are missing a use case (say we discover motorways in Ecuador permit learner drivers to use them [please don't tell me this isn't the case - it's only an example]) we have to add tags to every other highway in the world to say that there learner drivers can't, otherwise we're assuming a default. - and that we have to update almost every way in the system already and change every bit of software we already have David _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk