[Talk-us] name expansion bot (Re: Imports information on the wiki)

[TC Haddad]

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 2:42 PM, Paul Johnson <baloo at ursamundi.org> wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 1:41 PM, TC Haddad <tchaddad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 12:01 PM, Paul Johnson <baloo at ursamundi.org>wrote:
>>
>>  but overall, the automation saved countless hours of manual name
>>> expansion for the minor cost of having to deal with a very small number of
>>> largely regionally-isolated edge cases.
>>>
>>>
>> Can someone explain the original point of name expansion? Is it so that
>> devices that give audio directions using text-to-speech can read fluently?
>> Or was it really all about "saving time"?
>>
>> Because there are other use cases where expanded names are not desirable,
>> particularly in cartography. When map or screen real estate is minimal,
>> expanded names can be downright detrimental to utility.
>>
>>
> Sounds like a problem for the renderer to solve.  It's possible for
> renderers to easily create abbreviations when full words are not desired,
> but impossible for automated translation and renderers to expand
> abbreviations accurately.
>
>
I *guess*, but that seems unrealistic expectation to put on GPS hardware
manufacturers. Particularly if name expansion is inappropriate in one town,
but perfectly appropriate in another, and usual practice is to load a large
area (like a whole state or region) into a GPS device. How woud a device
renderer know to even try to distinguish across community lines?

>From the user perspective it would be nicer if the names in the data set
correspond to the actual street sign names. In Portland the street name is
"Tillamook" and if I am on "NE Tillamook" that just helps me know the
quadrant of town. "Northeast" on it's own doesn't tell me anything if I
can't see the rest of the street name.

This example feels more like "tag for reality", vs "tag for the renderer"
argument, and the short prefixes feel more like reality in Portland, but
maybe that's just me...

I do see the value if text-to-speech is the real reason this was done
though.
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