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<p>I think we need to add some clear nuances to the rule of "thou shalt not abbreviate".</p>
<p>In order to be able to work correctly, the "abbreviator" must of course have some context such as language/locale, which can mostly be derived from the location, but this is always going to fail sometimes. </p>
<p>Expanding abbreviations grates a bit with the "on the ground rule". Navigation applications as well as visual maps need to be able to reproduce what the human will see on the ground - often in a language they don't know. Sometimes the abbreviated version is more recognisable. There should IMHO be an explicit tag to hold the version "as displayed on the signs" for any case where the "abbreviator" could be confused.</p>
<p>Maybe we should distinguish between types of words:</p>
<p>"road types" such as Avenue, Street --> limited set: these can probably be expanded reversibly</p>
<p>"personal titles" such as General, King --> limited set: these can mostly be expanded reversibly; in Dutch, "Ingenieur" has two possible abbreviations Ir. and Ing. depending on the granting University. Expanding them both to Ingenieur loses the distinction, and the "abbreviator" cannot make the right decision without having a list of names.</p>
<p>"personal names" such as "Winston Churchill" --> infinite set: these are often (but not always) abbreviated - how far do you go with the expansion? Should "W. Churchillstraat" be expanded to "Winston Leonard Spencer Churchillstraat"? Perhaps we should leave personal names as they are on the signs.</p>
<p>Colin</p>
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<p>On 2014-06-19 05:40, Nathan Oliver wrote:</p>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jun 18, 2014 at 9:39 PM, Paul Johnson <span><<a href="mailto:baloo@ursamundi.org">baloo@ursamundi.org</a>></span> wrote:<br />
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<div>On Wed, Jun 18, 2014 at 4:50 AM, François Lacombe <span><<a href="mailto:francois.lacombe@telecom-bretagne.eu">francois.lacombe@telecom-bretagne.eu</a>></span> wrote:<br />
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<div>Could someone precise me why abbreviations should always be avoided in tagging please ?</div>
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<div>This is already explained at length in the wiki, but chiefly because it disambiguates things a lot. Data consumers can create abbreviations from full words, but expanding abbreviations accurately in an automated fashion is about as hard as writing a program that can pass a Turing test.</div>
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<div class="gmail_extra">Indeed. This was driven home for me when my GPS announced "You have arrived at your destination, the Cathedral of Street Paul."</div>
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