GeoJSON demo of recursive geometry demolition.

allasplode.py

# allasplode.py: Explode all geometries of all features in a collection into a cloud of points.
#
# GeoJSON geometry objects all have a 'coordinates' object which is multidimensional array of
# numbers. The uniformity of these objects is a good thing: it lets us go at them with recursive
# methods and helps us write less code.
#
# Input data file from http://poezn.github.com/us-history-maps/.

def explode(coords):
    """Explode a GeoJSON geometry's coordinates object and yield coordinate tuples.
    As long as the input is conforming, the type of the geometry doesn't matter."""
    for e in coords:
        if isinstance(e, (float, int, long)):
            yield coords
            break
        else:
            for f in explode(e):
                yield f

import json

data = open("1789030.json", "r").read()
collection = json.loads(data)

for feature in collection['features']:
    # No matter the type of geometry, the path to every array of coordinates is the same.
    points = list(explode(feature['geometry']['coordinates']))
    print feature.get('id', "oh ffs"), points[0:2], len(points)