> On Sep 29, 2018, at 6:56 PM, Paul Johnson <ba...@ursamundi.org> wrote: > > I honestly don't understand why, ten years since it's introduction as OSM's > third basic primitive, there's still this weirdly unnatural aversion to > relations, even though they're quite a powerful primitive in our toolbox.
From my own perspective as the main developer on the main editor for OSM, the reason I don’t like relations very much is because: - every type of node basically works the same. - every type of linear way basically works the same. - every type of polygonal area basically works the same - every type of relation is an edge case that requires special code in order not to break. Relations are also problematic because they are unbounded. Want to make a boundary relation with a million child ways? This is allowed. Want to ensure that all those ways are connected? It may take minutes to download them all. They’re almost even a security threat. I’m willing to bet a black hat could design and upload a relation that would destroy OSM.. Or at least, crash every piece of software in the stack that we rely on: mapnik, osmium, and any editor that tries to touch it. Anyway, I’m not totally against them, but every one of them is different and I can't spend weeks or months supporting every kind of relation or public transport schema people dream up unless it’s super critical for building a useful map (like turn restrictions). They are really best for features that can not be mapped any other way. Thanks, Bryan
_______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
