[OSM-dev] 0.5 API: /api/0.5/user/preferences, values truncated to 256 chars

[Matt Amos]

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 5:48 PM, Stefan de Konink <stefan at konink.de> wrote:
> Shaun McDonald wrote:
>> Considering that no one until now has started using preferences, can
>> this wait until API 0.6?
>
> Some people are really eager to postpone everything that sounds
> 'reasonable' to 0.6 is released. Maybe it would be a good argument if a
> deadline for 0.6 is set?

the provisional deadline discussed at the hack weekend was xmas,
although this has probably slipped by now. the server-side code is
almost complete, but needs testing. most of the editors are working,
but need testing. do you think it would be motivating for all the
volunteers working on the editor and server code if we set a deadline?

> Is this problem at all addressed in 0.6? I'm quite surprised by this
> thread because I always was under the impression k and v sizes were
> unbounded. The choice for 256 is also very strange, 255 would have made
> much more sense.

it is varchar(255). i see no reason why it couldn't be longer, but
making it unbounded would mean that potentially megabytes of
information could be stored in the values. the limit encourages terse
tagging, which is good for everyone.

the exception is the note: key, which i've quite often wished were
longer. we now have things like openstreetbugs for some of these,
though.

cheers,

matt