On 9 May 2008, at 19:55, Jonathan Bennett wrote: > elvin ibbotson wrote: >> Things humans read need to be human readable. The database should be >> read by software and if it can be faster and more efficient using >> numbers, numbers are what should be used. > > > The best way of proving this would be to come up with your own version > of the OSM server stack that used ID numbers internally, while still > outputting human-readable tag names. How long do you think it would > take > you?
Some database engines can automatically compress data by replacing common values with look-up value for a dictionary containing the true value. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/ dm-0605ahuja/index.html explains the idea better than i do. I would expect its only a matter of time before such features appear in the open-source database engines. -- Chris Jones, SUCS Admin http://sucs.org _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk
