Hi Steve: one tag where units are in common use is maxspeed. The default is km/h but you can also use mph or knots. I don't see why this wouldn't be feasible for the ele tag as well.
If you look at taginfo, you can also see that ft is used quite a bit -- unfortunately often in an inconsistent way, e.g. ele=3643_ft or 3643ft. http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/ele#values (you have to search for ft in the search box). Harald. On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 8:57 PM Steve Friedl <st...@unixwiz.net> wrote: > Hi all, > > > > I appreciated being able to join my first Mappy Hour yesterday, though > without mic/camera. I’m quite enamoured with this project and hope to fit > in with the goals and the vibe. > > > > One thing we talked about, and I’d like to explore more formally, is how > to deal with elevation in local units. > > > > I lead hikes in the local Santa Ana Mountains, and there is not a single > person who hikes here, not even those from Europe or those who personally > invented the metric system, who thinks of peak elevations in meters. The > guides and the maps are all in feet, the surveying markers are in feet, as > are the topo maps. > > > > This is just a fact of life even if we all [including me] agree that > Americans are foolish for not adopting the metric system. > > > > An obvious thought is to enter the elevation including the units, so > Sierra Peak would show as “3045 feet” rather than “928”, but this won’t > work. > > > > The wiki page for the “ele” key defines the tag as meters, so it’s > reasonable to expect that some software out there relies on this, and it > would have no provisions to convert anything on the fly because it ought to > expect numeric meters. > > > > But even with this aside, that still doesn’t solve the rendering problem: > I believe that page tiles are rendered as images, so it’s got to pick * > *something** for the text, and I don’t think there’s any way of having a > user preference to show these things in local units. > > > > My suspicion is that there is no easy fix here, but I think a discussion > is in order. I’ve added a section to the key:ele page that touches on this, > not so much to propose a solution, but to let others with this same issue > know that it’s seen as an issue. > > > > Ref: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:ele#Local_Units > > > > Is this kind of thing suitable for the key:ele page? > > > > Steve > > > > --- > > Stephen J Friedl | Security Consultant | UNIX Wizard | 714 345-4571 > > st...@unixwiz.net | Southern California | Windows Guy | unixwiz.net > > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-us mailing list > Talk-us@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us >
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