[josm-dev] Validator

[Dirk Stöcker]

On Wed, 11 Jul 2012, Frederik Ramm wrote:

>>  The data checks in JOSM and Potlatch2 are fine in that they all
>>  indeed highlight potential problems. But the sum total of them
>>  is just overwhelming. Right now, it feels as if I need to rectify
>>  every problem in any object that I've downloaded, to silence
>>  all the complaints from the tools. They seem to lack even the
>>  idea of "forward motion" - this part of the map isn't perfect,
>>  but at least it's better than what was there before. Instead,
>>  the UI at default settings appears (to a novice) to insist on
>>  perfection.
>
> I've been in the same situation - work on something, upload, and see tons of 
> errors for which I am not the least responsible and which I cannot (or don't 
> have the patience to) fix now.
>
> As an experienced mapper, I just ignore them of course. But a newbie might 
> really find them intimidating, and choose to discard his edit in fear of 
> retribution.
>
> Do you think it would be possible to run the validator after data has been 
> downloaded and record the list of problems, and then when someone uploads, 
> only check for *newly added* problems instead of everything?
>
> Of course the validator would still, on request, be able to check everything, 
> but the automatic "hey, are you sure you want to upload this" check could be 
> reduced to those problems this mapper is really responsible for, rather than 
> listing everything that was wrong even before this mapper touched it.

The dialog already says:

----
The following are results of automatic validation. Try fixing these, but 
be careful (don't destroy valid data).

When in doubt ignore them.

...
----

I think the second sentence already clearly tells what to do with errors 
not caused by yourself.

The idea behind this is that users actually fix these issues. When we no 
longer display them, then they wont get fixed at all. The system has 
already been tuned a lot, so that the warnings and errors have few false 
positives and information level is disabled in default.

As programmer I say an error is an error and it makes no sense to divide 
it into "my" error and "your" error.

And a beginner getting "tons" of errors also touched "tons" of objects 
which probably is no good idea at all when you don't know what you do...

BTW: Since this text has been added the complaints about validator issues 
has been reduced a lot, so I actually believe people really read and 
understand the text.

Ciao
-- 
http://www.dstoecker.eu/ (PGP key available)