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Hello,<br>
<br>
I asked this question several months before, but I did not really
get an good answer (I think :D).<br>
<br>
My problem is the following:<br>
<br>
Currently, the main OSM website (osm.org) uses one display style for
every country. This results in (in my opinion) in some big flaws.
Here are some mistakes, which I commonly think about:<br>
<br>
1. Street signs are usually different in individual countries. For
example, highways in Germany are rendered like <a
href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Bundesautobahn_1_number.svg/200px-Bundesautobahn_1_number.svg.png">this</a>,
but currently, OSM just displays some other style (I don’t know
where it is from, maybe from UK?). <br>
2. The font may need to be different in some regions. Although
China, Japan and Taiwan all use Chinese characters for their
geographical names, the font needs to be different. If the same font
is used everywhere (as is currently used a Chinese font), Japanese
and Taiwanese may not really like the result. It is still readable,
but it is not perfect.<br>
3. Wouldn’t it be nice, if e.g. the metro stations of one city were
displayed with the logo of the operator? Of course, in most cases
this is not possible because of copyright issues, but, provided the
case that operator would be fine to let the logo be used in OSM, I
think it would be best to use that logo. <br>
4. Especially in areas with non-latin script, currently often the
“name” tag uses the original script plus an “English” transcription,
e.g. 東京 (Tokyo). In my opinion, this is not really a nice solution,
because some other regions (English is not used everywhere) may want
to have their own transliteration displayed there: e.g. 東京 (Токио).
The Japanese may not care if the name tag uses “東京 (Tokyo)”, because
they just tend to look at the Japanese, but some other foreigners
may think this is extremely insufficient. <br>
<br>
The last time I asked this, the solution would be different website,
which renders its own style. Of course, this may be a solution, but
it has one big problem: How do I know all these websites? And for
whom is <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.openstreetmap.org">www.openstreetmap.org</a>? Just for English users? Wouldn’t it
be nice, if the OSM website detected the current’s person language
(which it already does, because it displays the text on the left
side in some other language), and display an appropriate map?<br>
<br>
Because the rendering team cannot be burdened to make every small
change, why not let the different teams of the countries let them do
it?<br>
<br>
I think the following would be nice:<br>
<br>
The German team edits the German style, and lets the German highways
be displayed in the correct style - only in Germany.<br>
The Japanese team can choose a Japanese font for Japanese names,
ignore all the latin transcriptions and just display Japanese. Also,
they will make a version which can be selected, which will display
the reading of all the geographical names (cities, train stations
etc.) on top of it, in order to let Japanese learning foreigners be
able to read the geographical names etc. This option will only
appear if the zoom is on Japan, because it has no effect on Germany
or whatever.<br>
Furthermore, the German team will say that, on top of the style the
Japanese team created, it will change all rendering of the Japanese
names and let the German name be displayed additionally (this will
then be in effect only for German computers viewing a Japanese map):
Thus, it is not “東京 (Tokyo)”, but “東京 (Tokio)”. The user could then
still select the style which is best for him, e.g. “Japanese native
style”, “Japanese style with reading”, “Japanese + German
translated” or “Only German translation/transcription”. Maybe a
cookie can store his favourite settings, so that Japan will always
be displayed in “Japanese style with reading” (because he is
learning Japanese, but has not yet mastered it fully), but Israel in
“Only German translation/transcription” (because he speaks
absolutely no Hebrew and cannot read it at all, so the Hebrew script
would just be a nuisance to him).<br>
<br>
I think, creating something like this would be the best to make OSM
really be usable in different regions: Different country teams can
make variations of the default rendering style, which will only be
displayed in their region. Also, they can then make variations of
other country-specific styles to render in another language. <br>
<br>
I really think, it is not good to create that much subprojects with
other websites, if it is essentially the same as openstreetmap.org
does. If my mother wants to see a map, she will open
openstreetmap.org, and then expect it to show German highway signs
and Praha not as “Praha” or “Prague”, but as “Prag”, just as she
would find it on an ordinary German map. Of course, stuff like
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.öpnvkarte.de">www.öpnvkarte.de</a> warrants an own website, but not just an ordinary
map.<br>
<br>
What do you think about it?<br>
<br>
Gerrit<br>
<br>
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