[josm-dev] A total newbie's problems with josm

[Igor Brejc]

I agree with you on the obsoleteness of JOSM help pages. I went through 
the JOSM page on OSM Wiki (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/JOSM) 
and removed all references to segments, which are now obsolete. But I 
really think this page needs a fresh start (even the screenshots are 
more than a year old :) ). And IMHO there is no need for two separate 
places for JOSM help: OSM page and JOSM project page. This only confuses 
newbies and makes page maintenance more difficult.
I propose that the existing page is scrapped and a new version is 
created with only the most important information (what JOSM is, where to 
find it, how to run it, links to other important OSM stuff...). For 
other stuff only headers would be placed and left for people to fill in 
the gaps.

Best regards,
Igor Brejc
> I thought that it would be useful to communicate my frustrations with
> josm in my first couple of hours after downloading version 477,
> "last change 2007-11-30 : 13:56:02"
>
> The opening page about a "modeless" version wasn't really meaningful to
> a new user, but at least it alerted me to possible problems.
>
> The reference to API 0.5 also on that page didn't seem relevant since I
> took API to mean Application Programmer Interface, so something to be
> explored later. I now gather that it actually refers to a new xml
> version. As I had taken a look at some of the osm xml syntax before
> downloading josm, a reference to the xml change would have helped.
>
> Online help.
> ===========
>
> This was perhaps the major problem! At first I thought that it referred
> to a different program! Indeed, it does - an earlier version.
>
> Examples:
>
> The "Introduction to JOSM" starts referring to segments in the second
> paragraph: I gather they have been abolished in osm version 0.5.
>
> Editing in JOSM, also in the Introduction - so almost the first thing I
> read - refers to
> 'the node button (4th button in the left menu bar) looks like a little
> square and when you hover the mouse over it a tip comes up saying "add a
> node to the map".'
>
> Of course, none of the above exist, but I spent far too much time
> fiddling with the GUI trying to see if I could make that magic button
> appear some how :-(
>
> I could go on, but you see the point: it is totally confusing and off
> putting to the new user.
>
> Of course this is open source and documentation often (always?) lags
> behind, but all that is needed is a prominent notice warning newbies
> that the online help is out of date!
>
> In passing, I also struggled to find out how the mouse operated: in
> particular, it was quite some time before I discovered that I needed
> shift-ctl-mouse_button for some actions. Shades of emacs (which I don't
> mind), but this was unexpected and not well documented.
>
> Tags
> ====
>
> As I said earlier, I have already taken a quick look at the osm xml and
> noticed that the basic tag for a road type was "highway". There is
> (obviously) much mention of tagging, but nowhere on the GUI could I find
> any mention of tags! I now know they are under "presets" and of course I
> looked there. However, I knew that a basic tag was "highway", but it did
> not seem to be a Preset, so again I decided that Presets were something
> to be explored later after I had found out how to do the 3 basic tasks :
> 1) creating nodes;
> 2) collecting into ways;
> and
> 3) tagging said ways.
>
> So help the newbie by mentioning tags in the GUI or put something in the
> Introduction to say that Presets are tags. Or change tag to preset or
> something on the GUI in the getting started help...
>
> Ok, so I sorted out the problems, but it was very frustrating and
> confusing and I began to doubt my sanity at times. If there had been
> another editor at the same level as josm, I probably would have dropped
> josm after the first 30 minutes...
>
> A Lawrence
>
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