[Tagging] RFC 2 - addr:interval

Jmapb jmapb at gmx.com
Wed Jan 6 16:34:24 UTC 2021


On 1/6/2021 5:12 AM, Simon Poole wrote:

> Changing semantics for an existing widely unstructured tag
> (addr:housenumber) is a really bad idea (not to mention one of the
> most used ones). It really doesn't matter if you are using | - or any
> other character for the additional information it just isn't going to
> end well. In this case it is even more absurd because in practical
> terms (OSMOSE, OSMI etc) even the simple list form of addr:housenumber
> is disputed (with , or ; as delimiter).
>
> To lighten things up though
> https://twitter.com/sp8962/status/617622144625831936
>
Well that's pretty damn funny!

We want a lot of different things out of our address tagging:

1 - Accurately map the observable world by tagging an element -- or part
of a more complicated element, like a building with multiple entrances
-- with its signed address(es).
2 - Reflect official government-issued addresses.
3 - Accurately indicate the addresses (sometimes signed, sometimes
discovered by other means) of sub-elements, like businesses and other
POIs in a building. (Some mappers desire to enumerate individual units
in residential buildings as well.)
4 - Give geocoders all the information they need to correctly position a
requested address, even when the housenumber isn't a
character-for-character match with a tagged housenumber.
5 - Allow mapping software to present a simple interface for casual
mappers to add and edit addresses.

And of course the addresses in 1, 2, and 3 might not all agree. And
their housenumbers might be atomic or might be ranges. And some atomic
housenumbers might look like ranges (eg in Queens NY.)  And an actual
housenumber range may sometimes function as an atomic housenumber (eg a
single business whose address is 10-14 Main Street.)

The current rough consensus on address tagging (which I guess is
basically the Karlsruhe schema) is often adequate, but there are a lot
of corner cases on this hypercube, and some affect millions of people.
We might not be able to nail them all down, but it would be great to
document examples of currently problematic situations and how best to
tag them. If there are viable solutions that don't require changing the
generally understood semantics of the addr:housenumber tag, that would
of course be hugely preferable!

Jason





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