[OSM-dev] Osmupdate 0.4.5 fails (osmctools)

Florian Lohoff f at zz.de
Mon Feb 22 17:25:27 UTC 2021


Hi Andy,

On Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 04:58:11PM +0000, Andy Allan wrote:
> Tom, Florian - please both take a second to be a bit kinder in the
> things that you say about the software and its developer.
> 
> Many years ago I wrote a text parser in C, and it was neither fun nor
> pretty (nor reliable nor well thought through). I'm glad my work has
> never been publicly derided as "mad", nor has had anyone asking for me
> to be banned for not reaching their expectations.
> 
> Please, be nice, and imagine how the original developer might feel if
> they read this thread.

You may be right - My critic is probably to harsh. I apologize. Just to
make my point a little more clear:

It hasnt been the first time i had a look at the code i have deeply
burried in my processing pipelines and up to now i always simply gave up
fixing ANYTHING in that code.

For non coding junkies it begins with something like this:

"Download and build in one run:   wget -O - http://m.m.i24.cc/osmupdate.c | cc -x c - -o osmupdate"

How is anyone not familiar with C coding, gcc/cc command line options be
able to apply a simple one liner patch? 

The whole procedure around osmupdate/osmconvert are not user friendly AT ALL.

I use those tools as the prove to be pretty reliable in my pipelines but
as you can see today once something fails people are actually lost.

I got socialised with the Linux Kernel coding style, and i know from
large projects that coding style makes A HUGE DIFFERENCE in projects
actually beeing a "one man show" or beeing understood and maintained
by a team.

And i am sorry - But osmupdate/osmconvert is by coding style,
installation, distribution, versioning a one man show.
I was pretty happy with that. Its open source, if it breaks
you may keep both halves. And i am used to C/C++ so - i can
with enough pain fix it myself. Others cant.

And thats my whole point. 

Flo
-- 
Florian Lohoff                                                     f at zz.de
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