Talk:Dev:How To Reference Infrastructure

I am not convinced of the current usage of the terms "macroscopic" and "microscopic" in conjunction with "tracks identical to edges between nodes" and "tracks longer than edges between nodes".

In (not only) my language understanding, the terms "macroscopic" and "microscopic" suggest something like a zoom factor, a kind of detailed or rough. This has nothing to do with the length of tracks being longer or not longer than edges between nodes.

One could also imagine

• a rather detailed infrastructure model (with points, signals a. s. o.) with tracks longer than edges between nodes,
• a rather "rough" infrastructure model with relative short tracks which are not longer than the edges of that model (junctions, stations).

The typical relevant basic features are

• Detailed infrastructure model: Model includes points, signals, track elements. Nodes are points.
• "Rough" infrastructure model: Nodes are junctions/stations. Model does normally not "look into stations" in a wider sense.

In my opinion, we should write this into an introduction of the topic.

Now that we do not want to start again from the beginning, I could imagine the following:

a) Explicitly defining the terms "macroscopic" and "microscopic" describing the length of the tracks only. Defining new terms for "detailed" and "rough" independent from "macroscopic" and "microscopic". These new terms could be for instance "point-oriented" and "station-oriented". Then, one (we) should be aware that there may be also "macroscopic point-oriented" and "microscopic station-oriented" models.

b) On the other hand, we normally use the terms "long-track philosophy" and "short-track philosophy" in all-day life instead of "macroscopic" and "microscopic". So, possibly we should use that therms in future for the length of the tracks and leave the "macroscopic" and "microscopic" as synonyms for "detailed, point-oriented" and "rough, station-oriented".

I would prefer the latter one (b).

--Dirk Bräuer 16:12, 10. Nov. 2012 (CET)

Under Construction

As discussed in the TT developer group, the Guide does not help in understanding how to reference infrastructure. Complete overhaul was deemed necessary.
RailML Coord Documentation (talk) 12:35, 13 March 2023 (CET)