[OSM-dev] Handling of towns with different or alternative names

[Simon Ward]

On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 01:18:53AM +0100, Stefan de Konink wrote:
> > Is using different keys (when they’re likely to be unknown to the
> > renderers) or multiple tags with the same key name any better supported
> > in the renderers?
> 
> The most logical way of tagging is still using the xml namespace idea. 
> name:en,name:nl etc. This is used for the different Dutch layers and is 
> clean. If someone wants to render his own map he will prioritize the 
> name:whatever over name, and creates his fancy map.

This only works when the key variants are distinct.  Your examples are
distinguished by the language code, but one of the cases given was for
multiple alternative names, or multiple old names that don’t have
anything (known) to distinguish them.  One of the work‐arounds was to
add numeric suffixes, so you might have: alt_name:1, alt_name:2, etc.

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall
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