[Tagging] [OSM-talk] emergency=*

[Ross Scanlon]

On Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:05:19 +0100
Emilie Laffray <emilie.laffray at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 30 July 2010 16:26, Ross Scanlon <info at 4x4falcon.com> wrote:
> 
> >
> > Total time 6 minutes
> >
> > Hundreds of hours, yeah right.
> >
> > The program I've been talking about uses osm2pgsql and mapnik so I'm well
> > aware of them.
> >
> > If your smart you could probably add the emergency data without having to
> > totally rerun osm2pgsql.


> I think you are missing the point that Brian was making. If the data has to
> change dramatically, it means one or two man weeks to do the change at work
> for our engine at work. The change in itself is simple, but that means
> testing if none were missing, that everything is running fine, regenerating
> a database earlier than expected which in itself takes a significant amount
> of time. Testing is something quite important and we have tons of test to
> make sure that the database is working as expected before we release to
> production.

I'm well aware of this, but if your app is robust then the changes should not be that much of an issue and the testing should only be minor.  The garbage point Brian was making is exactly that garbage.  If you make statements like it'll be hundreds of developer hours to modify apps then you need to be able to back it up with facts.

Why would you have to regenerate the database earlier than expected?  If you regenerate the database on a regular basis then it could wait for the next routine regeneration.  It does not have to be done immediately, that was the point of initially duplicating the tags and then after a sufficient time then remove the duplicated amenity tags.

> However, I don't like those tags, as they don't really make sense in many
> cases. Before rushing, we should really evaluate a bit more if they make
> sense.


Then show why and where they don't make sense rather than carrying on about possible broken apps.

>From my point of view the tags make perfect sense, if I have an emergency and I need police, fire or ambulance assistance then I'll look for emergency rather than amenity.

I've shown how quickly the two apps described by Brian can be updated quickly, it does not take much more effort than that.


-- 
Ross Scanlon <info at 4x4falcon.com>