[OSM-dev] Announcing: Simple Map Editor (GSoC 2010)

[Michael Daines]

> - I can only add predefined tags - I think there should be a more common way to add tags. The best way is to simplify adding relevant tags by using data mining (Which tags are often used together with the tags already defined?) to propose new tags instead of manually predefining tags! Or do you have implemented it already this way but the test data set lacks some data? Anyway, I (not a beginner) want to be able to add any tag I want.

The idea is that as a beginner you wouldn't yet be sure what tags add anyway. (Or wouldn't even yet care how OSM uses "tags" or "nodes", etc.) This is more of a design decision than a technical limitation.


> - I want to be able to zoom out to see the whole geometry.

Right now the editor loads map data through the standard /map bbox query. Loading a lot of map data when zoomed out would be slow, (it is already slow on the production API) but perhaps in the future, XAPI could be used to only load the kinds of things the editor can actually do things with?


> - I agree with Sebastian Klein: Do not force the user to cancel or save, but save the whole as one changeset.

How do you see this working? Just opening a changeset at the beginning of the editing session and letting it close automatically? Or would it be reflected in the interface?

I want to avoid presenting the concept of the "changeset" and also make it clear that some action is taking place when editing. I don't want the user's edits to be silently transmitted to the servers without them realizing it.