[Tagging] Wiki Edit War on using/avoiding semicolon lists

Charles Basenga Kiyanda personal at charleskiyanda.com
Thu Jan 22 19:16:19 UTC 2015



On 15-01-22 01:44 PM, tagging-request at openstreetmap.org wrote:
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 18:08:49 +0100
> From: Marc Gemis <marc.gemis at gmail.com>
> To: "Tag discussion, strategy and related tools"
> 	<tagging at openstreetmap.org>
> Subject: Re: [Tagging] Wiki Edit War on using/avoiding semicolon lists
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAJKJX-S3rCtHqSH+22+zrn0H5k6_ATTTOcmZmdcESYeK6k=1Vw at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"


>> > In this thread we are also most interested in multiple values.
> I know :-)
> 
> 

I have to add fuel to a heated discussion, but in the whole exchange on
whether or not semicolon lists should be allowed/used, the most obvious
example (to me) that requires semicolon lists was not mentionned,
namely: opening hours.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:opening_hours

I've tried before to collect data on parking restrictions in the city of
montreal (Canada). Parking restricted/allowed times are an example of
geographical data that requires a time description.

I don't think the problem can be solved by relations. Simply because
parking is allowed on two different streets between 2 and 3 pm, does not
mean they're "related". As noted on the wiki:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relation#Types_of_relation

"They are not designed to hold loosely associated but widely spread
items. It would be inappropriate, for instance, to use a relation to
group 'All footpaths in East Anglia'." Similarly, holding "all street
segments for which parking is allowed between 2 and 3pm on the island of
montreal" in a relation strikes me as a bad idea.

Substituting

opening_hours = Mo-We 08:00-17:00; Th-Fr 08:00-21:00

to

opening_hours:Mo-We 08:00-17:00 = yes
opening_hours:Th-Fr 08:00-21:00 = yes

would in my opinion lead to an inordinate number of subkeys. For
example, in montreal alone, there are about 65000 different types of
city parking signs. Let's say the number of individual distinct parking
restrictions is only 10% of that, there would still be 6500 different
subkeys (looking only at my city only).

To make a long story short, this example, to me, shows that semicolon
lists should stay in the tagging scheme.

I would suggest discussing:

A) For which keys and/or type of data are semicolon lists pertinent?
B) How can semicolon lists be handled better in the different editors?

as separate topics. Right now the two topics seem intertwined, which
strikes me as less productive.

With nothing but regards to all,

Charles



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