[josm-dev] JOSM Applet

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 03/03/2011 09:04 AM, "Dirk Stöcker" wrote:
>> Was the preference storing feature on the OSM server unsuitable, and if
>> so, why? Maybe the OSM server can be amended so that the JOSM applet
>> could store its data there rather than on the JOSM server.
>
> I'm not aware the OSM server has a feature to store JOSM preferences. Has it?

It has a general key-value storing mechanism that uses the normal API 
(it's not Java-specific stuff), so if you can access the OSM API, you 
can also store and access preferences, no matter where your applet was 
loaded from. It is little used so it is well possible that it doesn't 
have all the functionality required for something like JOSM.

Here's the docs: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/API_v0.6#Preferences

>> I am, as should be clear by now, quite unhappy about *any* role the JOSM
>> server plays for operating the JOSM editor.
>
> Why? Is there a reason to have more trust in the OSM-server infrastructure?

Personally I don't view the FOSSGIS servers (one of which is currently 
the "JOSM server") as a production environment on par with the OSM 
servers. The OSM servers are physically accessible to a skilled admin 
team; if something breaks, they can easily migrate services to another 
machine, or get access to the building and fix it. The OSM servers are 
also the property of OSMF. In contrast, the FOSSGIS servers are loaned 
to us based on a sponsorship agreement which is not guaranteed to last 
forever, and if the hardware breaks we're dependent on the provider's 
staff to fix things. In addition to the insecurity on the hardware side, 
I am also concerned about the software side because I think that nobody 
except you actually knows what is going on on the "JOSM server", and if 
you should lose interest, be run over by a bus, or just are too annoyed 
by my constant nagging, then he have a server on which everyone has come 
to depend but which cannot be maintained properly by anyone.

Ideally, I would want the "JOSM server" to be the location where you 
download JOSM, and maybe where tickets are entered, and nothing more. 
Ideally, I would want us to be able to, at any time, throw away our trac 
and decide we use another system, or OSM's trac. I also want us to be 
able to move JOSM hosting to somewhere else, or throw away SVN, or 
migrate to MediaWiki for the help pages, if at any time it seems 
reasonable to do so.

Every additional kind of interaction of the software with the "JOSM 
server", every extra bit of Python magic takes us further away from such 
resilience. I would like the "JOSM ecosystem" to work even if the "JOSM 
server" breaks.

> Please note that an Java applet is an 100% pure online component. It must
> be based on one server or the other.

If we can get it to work properly then I'm sure it can be hosted on 
osm.org and be added to the "Edit" drop-down.

Bye
Frederik