[OSM-dev] created_by considered harmfull

[Tom Hughes]

In message <179549A7-1A8C-4932-A5CE-2BD1084A0124 at remote.org>
        Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:

> I don't think the problem is so pressing to call for such drastic  
> measures. I would like to repeat a suggestion I've made in the past:
>
> * Change our data model at the API so that instead of every record  
> having a last-modified timestamp and a user id, every record only has  
> one "changeset id"
> * Create a new table "changesets" that stores user id, timestamp,  
> editor type and version, plus an optional "commit message"
> * Initially, auto-generate one changeset entry for each change that  
> is committed, but step by step migrate to a solution where editors  
> can issue a "create changeset" call (with optional commit messages)  
> which gives them an unique id and have them upload every change  
> referencing that changeset id
>
> I have proposed this mainly because I think we need commit messages  
> for the benefit of the community (I want to see what the person  
> thought he was doing an why!), but it would remove the need for  
> "created_by" tags nicely along the way.

This is absolutely 100% exactly what we need, and it's a fundamental
requirement for any sort of sensible rollback support.

It would need an open session API calls - I imagine JOSM would
open a new session for each upload while Potlatch would open one
when started or something.

Tom

-- 
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://www.compton.nu/