[Tagging] Semicolons? (was Re: RFC: generator:* (for power=generator features))

Alan Mintz Alan_Mintz+OSM at Earthlink.Net
Fri Aug 27 11:10:42 BST 2010


At 2010-08-27 02:49, =?UTF-8?Q?M=E2=88=A1rtin_Koppenhoefer?= wrote:
>2010/8/27 Tom Chance <tom at acrewoods.net>:
>
> >> the suggested semicolon for combinations is never evaluated by any
> >> application (AFAIK).
> >>
> >
> > I have been told two different things, now. Do we use semicolons or not?
>
>
>we "use" semicolons in cases where 2 values have to be assigned to one
>key, but it is not beeing evaluated AFAIK, at least not by "mayor"
>applications.
>...
>I would not recommend to design a proposal where it is predictable
>that multiple values to one key will occur in this way. I was told
>that it is unlikely that multiple values will be taken into account
>because this is too cost intensive to calculate.


Semicolons are necessary, used, and need to be evaluated by tools. The 
alternative is a massive change to the definition and existing use of many 
tags, something that seems far more unreasonable. It's not ideal to create 
new tagging schemes that require them, but IMO, we have to deal with the 
ones that are there.

What probably bothers developers is not wanting to decide arbitrarily which 
icon to show, and not wanting to invent a whole new metadata scheme to 
decide priorities (thought this problem exists also when there are both 
amenity and leisure keys present, for example). Personally, I would rather 
see an arbitrary priority than nothing at all (the current state).

--
Alan Mintz <Alan_Mintz+OSM at Earthlink.net>




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