How do you want corners handled? With curves? Does the distance only matter between two lines?
Frankly, I really don't know. In the case of certain corners (such as the vertex of a square or a triangle, it is intuitively quite simple. Ordinarily, every point on the outer polygon should be 'd' distance from the corresponding point in the inner polygon. Of course, a triangle's vertex creates an interesting problem. However, the vertex of the outer polygon can be 'd' distance from the vertex of the inner polygon in two different directions, with some kind of smoothing curve in between. This is geography, so accuracy is not as important as reliability. As long as we intuitively know that the resulting buffer is more or less correct, no one is going to quibble.
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accuracy is not as important as reliability
I understand the difference between accuracy and precision, but could you please explain what you mean by accuracy vs. reliability? (Google is not as helpful here.)
Update: added links to definition
--Solo
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You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake; well, this could be it, sweetheart.
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accuracy vs. reliability
Maybe I've gotten myself in hot water here. For me, accuracy refers to the closeness to the truth, for example as reflected by the number of digits after the decimal. More the digits after the decimal, the closer to the truth you might be. Reliability refers to consistency. It may not be very accurate, but it may be consistently good enough that you can make a decision based on it. For example, saying "go right at the split in the road" is as reliable as it can get, but has no concept of accuracy of measurement in it.
But then, I hope no other monk pounces on me for saying the above as I may be spewing more than I have chewed.
(for that matter, I myself don't understand the difference between 'accuracy' and 'precision', but that is neither here nor there for the problem in question).
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