[OSM-talk] keys

[Andy Robinson]

Immanuel Scholz wrote:
>Sent: 12 June 2006 17:05
>To: talk at openstreetmap.org
>Subject: RE: [OSM-talk] keys
>
>Hi,
>
>
>> You have always used the word "class", would I be right in thinking
>that's
>> more to do with data and coding than to do with maps? (other than perhaps
>> classifying the importance of that road say).
>
>Uhm? Well... I think the "class=major" is the mother of all tagging
>examples. :-)
>
>Don't know the origin, but its something like "foobar" - after the
>10000'th mention you stop asking what it means. :-D
>
>Personally I would never have come up with something like "class=major" by
>myself, because to me it sounds more like a millitary award assignment
>than a road classification. ;-)   I really never questioned it enough.
>
>
>> Since it is the editors (and not necessarily the coders) who are trying
>to
>> find the way to input data in a format that others can more easily use,
>> what is the best practice that we can use that speaks in map terms?
>
>Just not to be at cross-purposes: You ask for a way to find the best
>method how map-people can enter data?
>
>Well, this is easy: Just the same as for every other thing when developing
>software: Count the user requests.
>
>So looking through my requests for JOSM, I would say, that people like
>forms to enter their data into. They like to have a textfield to enter the
>name of something. Comboboxes to choose values from and checkboxes for
>on/off decisions.
>

Ok, that's a great start. My only concern is whether this straightforward
approach is flexible enough. I'm not just thinking about those of us who
like to see the final map (as if on paper or screen) but also those that
want to do other things with the data.

If the methodology within JOSM can take into account the fact that
class=major has different connotations in different contexts then I'm more
than happy to wait and see what falls out, especially as you have the
uncanny knack or being able to deliver just what we need to get by :-)

To me though the English names I came up with in "map features" were on the
whole logical for the type of application and the emphasis on KISS, so I
would always want to maintain both the KISS approach and the readability to
the user.

>But I did not get a single request to "specify a namespace for a key more
>easy" (yet). ;-)
>
>
>Ciao, Imi
>
>PS: Shouldn't we move to dev at ...?
>
>
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Cheers,

Andy

Andy Robinson
Andy_J_Robinson at blueyonder.co.uk