[josm-dev] Validator

[Toby Murray]

On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 1:00 PM, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>
> On 11.07.2012 18:13, Dirk Stöcker wrote:
>>
>> 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 that, for a newbie, the "when in doubt, ignore them" line can be
> dwarfed if there's a large number of warnings and errors.
>
>
>> 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,
>
>
> Exactly. This is what the newbie will think as well: "The system has been
> tuned a lot, this editor is used by thousands of mappers every day, so it
> MUST BE RIGHT and I am responsible for all these bugs! Oh dear!"
>
>
>> so that the warnings and errors have few false
>> positives and information level is disabled in default.
>
>
> We're not talking about false positives. We're talking about things that are
> indeed problems that need to be fixed, but we're showing them to the wrong
> person - someone who lacks the necessary time or first-hand information to
> fix them.
>
>
>> As programmer I say an error is an error and it makes no sense to divide
>> it into "my" error and "your" error.
>
>
> Oh yes it does. Because if you have made a change that *causes* a problem,
> and then a message discourages you from uploading at all, then that's not
> too bad. But if you make a change that just happens to lead to *unrelated*
> problems being highlighted, and you then decide to rather not upload your
> change, then this is a loss for OSM.
>
>
>> 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...
>
>
> Is it not possible to touch one large object which has e.g. 20 level
> crossings with other ways and then get 20 warnings just because you added a
> tag to that one big thing? At least that's what the guy on talk-us claimed.

Yes. The validator runs on any object you have touched so if you add a
node to a TIGER railway to correct its geometry then you will get a
warning for every highway=residential it crosses without an
intersecting node. Personaly, I'm fine with this and even desire it
since most of the time I will go fix things. Or not if I really don't
have time. I can see how it could be daunting for a new user though.
Is there any difference in validator behavior in beginner vs expert
mode? Perhaps something could be done there...

Toby