alexreisner / alexreisner/geocoder

Choice between linear and spherical for distance_between

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feature
Dominant language
Ruby
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Description

I'm surprised we don't get the option of choosing between a spherical and linear formula for calculating distances. For search-engines that need to query large amount of objects based on relatively small distances this makes a fairly big performance difference and other libraries like Geokit have this implemented throughout.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the distance_between entry point and the existing distance-calculation tests. Review how the current formula is selected and how callers provide options. Done means users can choose between spherical and linear calculations, with coverage for both choices and the reported small-distance use case.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
ruby
Domain
backend, performance
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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