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

[ael]

Andy Robinson wrote:
> On 02/12/2007, ael <law_ence.dev at ntlworld.com> wrote:
>> 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 that the online help is out of date!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
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> josm-dev mailing list
>> josm-dev at openstreetmap.org
>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/josm-dev
>>
> 
> 
> Its great to get this sort of feedback for the project and its even
> better if you can both go away and pull the wiki pages apart and
> replace, renew or otherwise bring them back up to date. Make a start
> using your notes above and I'm sure others will add their comments
> too.

I wouldn't want to mess with the wiki until I had had a little more
experience and understanding :-) Of course, by the time I have got that
far, I will have forgotten what tripped me up as a total newbie! Ah well.

After sending the message, I had a second session with josm on another
machine and noticed the help messages including mouse usage at the
bottom of the window. Somehow I had missed these during the first
session. I also discovered the video tutorials which were very helpful
in getting a feel for the system even though they were for an early
version. It might be worth including a link to these in the on line help.

A Lawrence