[OSM-newbies] Starting with JOSM and OpenStreetMap in general

[Rick Collins]

At 10:45 AM 10/10/2007, you wrote:
>Rick Collins wrote:
> >  I tested
> > it and uploaded a short section of a track as OSM data, however I
> > have not see it appear in the data on the site and I don't see a way
> > to determine the status of my uploads.
> >
>
>I found this confusing when I started. The information is there on the
>wiki, but you have to hunt for it a little.
>
>There are two ways for your data to appear on the maps, once it has been
>uploaded to the database:
>
>1. The entire database is rendered weekly to produce the mapnik rendered
>map (the default). So, just wait (for a maximum of a week)

Ok.  I had read that it is not updated right away, but I didn't know 
it took a week.  I assumed it would be done daily.


>2. You can request a particular tile to be rendered immediately by
>osmarender by going to informationfreeway.org, zooming in to level 12
>and doing control/click on the tile you want. Requested tiles are
>parcelled out to distributed processors by a system called 'tiles at
>home'. Once a processor has rendered your tile it is uploaded to the
>main system, and is then visible if you select 'osmarender' on the right
>of the map. When things are working well I generally find it takes a
>couple of hours for a tile to be rendered and displayed.

What exactly is "level 12"?  I am at that page and I see a 
thermometer type zoom control.  Are the levels 1 based starting from 
the bottom?  It looks like you can zoom in with 18 levels.  Opps, I 
see it down in the lower right corner.  It looks like the zoom number 
is 0 based.

It can be hard to tell where the new data has been added since there 
is little data in the immediate area.  I'll take a stab at it.


>However, there have been some problems with tiles at home since the big
>changeover - some clients seem to be using old versions of the software,
>taking the tiles to render, and returning nothing - and it is a bit hit
>and miss right now; you will also get no warning if it hasn't worked. It
>should be back to normal in the next few days.
>
>If you are just concerned whether your upload has gone into the database
>correctly, a simple way to check is to open josm, load in the raw gps
>file for the area so you establish a bounding box, and hit 'download
>from osm' in the 'connection' menu. You should get a copy  of your
>uploaded ways back from the database.

Yes, I have done that.  But I don't really know much about what I am 
seeing.  I find a lot of data.  It looks like all of the tracks I 
have uploaded are there.  They seem to show as dots.  I also see some 
much lighter dots with light lines joining them.  Are these light 
lines and dots the way that I created?  My main concern is 
determining if I have added information to the way in the correct 
manner.  I did not find clear info on how to do that so I am not sure 
I did it correctly.

Thanks for the help.