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

Alan Mintz Alan_Mintz+OSM at Earthlink.Net
Sat Feb 18 07:11:18 GMT 2012


At 2012-02-17 13:41, TC Haddad wrote:
>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.

+1, though there is significant argument on both sides, and the 
non-abbreviators have so far managed to keep the status quo.


>For example: in Portland all the expanded quadrant names (NE,NW, SE, SW) 
>really detract from the experience of using osm extracts on handheld GPS.
>  All the streets in an area of interest end up looking like they have the 
> same name because all that fits on the street segments is the first word 
> of the expanded quadrant label and not the "real" part of the name. So 
> "NE Tillamook" and "NE Hancock" both just label as "Northeast"... and 
> that is separate from the issue that people don't actually write 
> addresses here as "Northeast Tillamook".


Theoretically, the consumers of the data (renderers, etc.) are supposed to 
do the work of re-abbreviating where necessary, but that seems to have 
gotten lost in the design of some/most of them.

--
Alan Mintz <Alan_Mintz+OSM at Earthlink.net>




More information about the Talk-us mailing list