On Mon, 28 Dec 2009, wynnd...@lavabit.com wrote: > A sentence was recently added to the wiki > [http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:place] stating that the tag > place=city should be used for legally defined cities in countries where > such a status exists. This is superficially attractive but it gives rise > to problems. The key issue is that place names, like roads, naturally form > a hierarchy, and that the tag place=city is similar to the tag > highway=trunk. > > For instance, the category in the United Kingdom includes Wells, which has > a population of 10,000 and which the Collins New World Atlas leaves out of > its 1:3,000,000 map of the British Isles. This is similar to the road > category of Bundesstrasse (nationally maintained road) in Germany, which > includes some quite small roads while omitting ones that are much more > important. If (say) highway=trunk was used for such roads a map generated > only from OSM data without an outside cheat sheet gives a warped idea of > roads in Germany; OSM solves this problem by not using a distinct level > for these roads. > > Using tagged population figures as a substitute to guide renderers has > been suggested but it brings its own problems because people will expect > them to be more broadly useful and figures may either be out of date or it > may be unclear what area is being counted. >
Cartographers use place names to fill in the space. When you to remote areas very very small places get a mention because there is space to fill. Alternately a compass rose with ornamentation can be used to cover up emptiness. If you try to enforce a system in which city is defined the same in each country you will have the cartographers problem - how to fill the empty space, and how not to overfill the space in a place like Japan or Indonesia. _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
