On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 2:16 PM, Frederik Ramm <frede...@remote.org> wrote:
> Post code areas are tremendously useful in Germany because they are
> commonly used as a cheap machine readable form of location descriptor
> ("enter your post code to find the nearest band branch" etc).
>
That's a good use for post code centroids, not post code areas. And post
code centroids are best stored in a simple lookup table, not OSM.
The actual areas are basically only useful for reverse geocoding (click a
spot on the map and get the postal code). But whether or not that's even
possible is highly dependent on whether or not the post office provides such
information. For some post offices, such information is not meaningful.
What is the postal code for the middle of a highway? Maybe there is one
defined, which represents what the postal code would be if there were a post
box there. But maybe there isn't. It depends on the post office.
I have no idea where Germany fits in that classification, which is why I
asked the questions above.
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