[Potlatch-dev] GPX time elements

[Richard Fairhurst]

On 11/10/2010 00:57, Craig Stanton wrote:
> In my case I know that the single trk is indeed a single track and
> should remain so. I've written my own pruner to cut out the extra
> data points and have created entirely valid file. Is there really no
> way that I can tell Potlatch or OSM that I have a valid file and the
> 3 minute rule shouldn't apply to long distance hikes? I've yet to
> hear of anyone that can walk a few hundred miles without a little
> down time. I'm probably going to put together a little php script to
> fake the time stamps on the locations but it seems strange that I'm
> having to change valid data to fit an assumption that doesn't cover
> it, what ever that time stamp was going to be used for it's now going
> to be totally useless. Granted it probably works very well for most
> car journeys, but hiking isn't exactly uncommon.

Hey, enough with the assumptions. Pretty much my core use case for 
Potlatch - the type of mapping I personally do most often - is 
long-distance cycle routes... and there's no way I can cycle up a hill 
like http://osm.org/go/evh8GlQw?layers=C without, as you say, a little 
downtime.

I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding how to map in OSM.

Automatic conversion of GPX to ways is an optional helpful assistant to 
save some tracing work. It is not the primary way to get data into OSM. 
You are _meant_ to review each section of the way, make sure the 
connectivity is correct to adjoining ways, split into tiny little ways 
to create the bridges and differently-surfaced sections and sections 
shared with other trails, and so on and so on.

We don't just "fire and forget" by uploading a GPX trace and saying 
"hey, make this a map for me". OSM is about creating a high-quality, 
topological, properly attributed map, not just an agglomeration of 
uploaded traces.

So with that in mind, when mapping a 100 mile-plus trail, you should be 
doing enough editing work that a handful of breaks here and there in the 
original trace are of no consequence at all; you should be creating and 
joining many more times than that. FWIW, I walked and mapped a five-mile 
section of a long-distance trail yesterday and the result was 12 
separate ways (http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/6005321).

(This is probably better suited to newbies@ than the Potlatch 
development list.)

cheers
Richard