Topology and Topography
Location information is never obtained in a single step. A location may be described through relative positional data, absolute positional data or any intermediate information for obtaining such data. Eventual descriptions are topographical, mostly referring to a terrain map or a building plan. Locating requires more than topological descriptions, which for instance only include neighbourhoods and hop counts, as is the case of communications networks. The topological description is however a prerequisite for operating some types of locating engines in order to obtain a topographical determination afterward.
Read more about this topic: Locating Engine
Famous quotes containing the word topography:
“That the mere matter of a poem, for instance—its subject, its given incidents or situation; that the mere matter of a picture—the actual circumstances of an event, the actual topography of a landscape—should be nothing without the form, the spirit of the handling, that this form, this mode of handling, should become an end in itself, should penetrate every part of the matter;Mthis is what all art constantly strives after, and achieves in different degrees.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)