[OSM-dev] Straw man design for OSM postcode database creator

[David Earl]

On 06/02/2008 00:14, Robert (Jamie) Munro wrote:
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> Tom Hughes wrote:
> | In message <47A8A316.6060005 at arjam.net>
> |           "Robert (Jamie) Munro" <rjmunro at arjam.net> wrote:
> |
> |> Can we set up the home page so that if NPEMap / FreeThePostcode finds an
> |> exact match, we just zoom straight to it, without asking Name Finder,
> |> (and probably without displaying a sidebar). If it doesn't find an exact
> |> match we list the namefinder results first, with the partial match
> |> listed last. Also, can we make the zoom levels of the approximate
> |> matches much lower than for exact or name finder matches.
> |
> | As you yourself have just demonstrated in your first post, the
> | name finder results really aren't reliable enough for that. If
> | anything I'm considering removing them again.
> 
> I think it's ok for the results to be bad as long as we indicate that
> they might be bad. The main purpose of the maps on OSM's home page is
> for people to see if their area has been mapped yet, and encourage
> people to
> 
> The majority of postcode searches are good, or are obviously bad where
> the area hasn't been mapped yet. The one in my other post was subtle and
> rare - there was a building in one street that had a similar name to a
> nearby street.

I think it is possible to improve the pattern matching for addresses as 
well. Because this is by definition UK specific, I could make more use 
of clues: words like 'Road' and 'Street' (I already do this to some 
extent), try searching for different components of something that looks 
like and address, try several hits rather than working on the first 
likely looking one and so on.

This was very much a first attempt to see if it might work - and it was 
much more successful than I had expected. I think I ought to patent it!

David