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

[David Groom]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ael" <law_ence.dev at ntlworld.com>
To: <josm-dev at openstreetmap.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 4:44 PM
Subject: [josm-dev] A total newbie's problems with josm


>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.

I agree that it might be time to drop this note now .

>
> 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.

A lot of people do still in fact refer to the individual parts of the way, 
between the nodes as segments,  It seems far mare elegant than saying the 
"part of the way between adjacent nodes".


>
> 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.
>

Agreed.  It is unfortunteate, but this page is perhaps the only page not 
updated when JOSM underwent a major rework  in the last couple of months.

I, for one, do try and look at the JOSM changesets and if they are relevant 
to the online documentation I try and ammend the documenttaion.  Its is a 
pity I miseed that one page, but in general I think you will find the online 
help relatively up to date.  It is always welcome however to have errors in 
the documentation pointed out.

> 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...

The first line of the help page for presets does in fact say " This brings 
up a list of predefined groups of tags which you can then choose to apply to 
ways and nodes."  If you think this can be worded more clearly then feel 
free to edit the online help.


David
>
> 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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