It is shown that the covering approach with a single decagonal prototile ca
n be transformed into a hexagon, boat and star tiling. Particularly the ato
mic decoration recently proposed by Cockayne and Widom (Phys. Rev. Lett. 81
(1998) 598-601) as a structure model for the decagonal phase is investigat
ed. There, conflicts with the prototile approach arise which are due to spe
cific peculiarities of the decoration. The above model is compared with rec
ent experimental images which give strong support to its main features, but
contradict competing structure proposals. The implications for the stabili
zation mechanism are discussed.