[Talk-ca] counting buildings - ( 2020 project ) - help please.

OSM Volunteer stevea steveaOSM at softworkers.com
Wed Sep 12 18:28:41 UTC 2018


On Sep 12, 2018, at 11:06 AM, john whelan <jwhelan0112 at gmail.com> wrote:
> One of the requirements was to create something that did not require an Internet connection

OK, yet I had no way of knowing that from your post.  Though, that is an "interesting" requirement for a crowdsourced, Internet-based map database.

> or a Ph.D. in OpenStreetMap jargon.

C'mon, John, I'm offering earnest help with a powerful tool familiar to a great many OSM users and a drop-dead-simple query whose guts are:

{{geocodeArea:Ottawa}}->.searchArea;
(way["building"="residential"](area.searchArea););

That's pretty much it, and you get your results in seconds visually or in various export formats.

> As I mentioned I'm after end users rather than OSM technically knowledgeable ones.

By substituting "node" for "way" or other text-strings for the keys or values you're looking for, and with a multitude of output formats, this is not Ph.D.-level stuff:  it is designed to easily query OSM data, returning results in familiar "map/visually" OR well-known geo datafile formats.  It isn't jargon-y, it IS used by "end users" and by OSM technically knowledgeable ones alike.  Using OSM data?  (Yes, you are):  use OSM-based tools.  You want jargon, use R.  I'm trying to help create light, not heat.

> Another was the ability to combine the information with other data.

Export the results of OT queries, and ye shall.

> Thank you for your thoughts and hopefully the answers will clarify what sort of assistance I'm after.

You are welcome, and I'll be curious to watch what happens.  As I saw your request for feedback is to be off-list, we who are on-list (I speak for myself right here) appreciate hearing of any fruit your query may bear.

Best regards,
SteveA


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