Can the Tiling Schemes and TileMatrixSets terms be used interchangeably?

[doublebyte1]

From the spec, the resource Tiling Schemes is served at the {datasetRoot}/tileMatrixSets path. Should we call this resource Tiling Schemes or TileMatrixSets, or it does not matter?

[doublebyte1]

On this implementation, the title of the resource is "Tiling Schemes":
https://maps.gnosis.earth/ogcapi/tileMatrixSets

On this implementation, the equivalent resource is called "TileMatrixSets":
https://demo.ldproxy.net/daraa/tileMatrixSets/

[jerstlouis]

@doublebyte1 both terms are defined in the 2D Tile Matrix Set standard's Terms and definitions.

Essentially, a Tile Matrix Set is a special kind of the more general concept of a Tiling Scheme. Tile Matrix Sets are limited to rectangular tiles as defined by the 2DTMS standard (the kind of tiling scheme supported by OGC API - Tiles and WMTS).

Other types of tiling schemes for example could be hexagonal, as possible with OGC API - DGGS "Zone Data Retrieval" requirement class.

There is some history as to why our implementation still says Tiling Schemes at /tileMatrixSets (I initially argued for using the term tiling schemes and the /tilingSchemes resource path), but we should probably change it to "Tile Matrix Sets". I used to prefer the term Tiling Scheme because we would continuously confuse a "Tile Matrix" (a single resolution grid) with a "Tile Matrix Set" (a set of multiple tile matrices) -- this is especially not obvious for people new to OGC standards.

[doublebyte1]

@jerstlouis Thank You for the clarification! I guess, in that it case, it makes sense to use the term "TileMatrixSets" in an implementation of OGC API Tiles that only supports rectangular tiles.