[OSM-talk] Questions from a newbie on editing

[Etienne Cherdlu]

Laurence
Welcome to OpenStreetMap.

Others have answered most of your questions already.  I'll just add a
couple of comments.

Currently the servers are heavily loaded and that makes the
performance of the applet pretty poor - at the moment its not really
usable - but new hardware, expected this week, might improve things. 
Use JOSM.

You can open your raw tracks directly in JOSM, so there is no need to
wait for them to be uploaded, etc.  Once you have your tracks visible,
then a download will populate that area with any existing nodes and
segments.  You are then ready to go...

BTW It may be worth getting a mouse with a scroll wheel for JOSM. 
This allows you to easily zoom in/out without having to switch modes.

Generally JOSM is a great tool.  Imi pays a lot of attention to its
usability. Most serious things that you need to do have keyboard
shortcuts, etc.  It does take a while to find about them all though...

Its a very good idea to take a digital camera with you.  It helps a
lot with interpretation and is much the quickest and most accurate way
of recording street names.

I agree 100% with you comments about OSM being an enjoyable activity. 
The combination of cycling, exploring, topology and map making is a
lot of fun...

Etienne

On 5/2/06, Laurence Penney <lists at lorp.org> wrote:
> Is the advice on the OSM site out-of-date that newbies should use the
> online applet?
>
> I've been trying for quite a while to do some editing based on a long
> cycle ride I did around Clifton yesterday, but have mostly failed so
> far. I managed to add nodes, segments and ways for a couple of short
> streets[1], but there are some buts...
>
> Specific problems:
>
> * It's painful waiting for reloads. This is especially a pain when
> scrolling back to an area I've just been to - caching would be lovely to
> say the least!
> * Most or all of the big trace I did yesterday (#3351, 1482 points) does
> not show up. I zigzagged a lot around the residential streets, all of
> which shows up when I load the GPX into JOSM.
> * Zoom (] key) doesn't work beyond level 14, I have to edit the URL to
> 15 or 16
> * The name of one of the streets I tagged (Clifton Suspension Bridge)
> doesn't show up.
>
> /*
> First impressions of JOSM:
> * I finally got the right mouse button to work by plugging in a real
> mouse (implementing ctrl-click as RMB is essential for laptop usage)
> * I could not download an area of interest using the map UI in the
> File/Open dialog. The scroll & zoom tool just magnifies the minimal-res
> world image with a mysterious algorithm.
> * Downloading based on a URL [2] omits my Clifton Suspension Bridge that
> shows up in the online applet. Is it supposed to show me other people's
> traces too?
> * When I load a GPX from the hard drive it looks pretty but seems
> squashed vertically as if the coordinates are not adjusted for latitude.
> */
>
> Questions:
>
> * Is it possible to have only one trace, or my own traces, as the
> background layer for editing? As I can't filter traces, I can't tell
> whether my big trace is partially loaded into OSM.
> * Can one check the time or contributor of a particular yellow trace dot?
> * Is there a bookmarking facility for the online applet? Getting back to
> the same area is a pain.
> * I didn't see any recommendations on how to set up a GPS for tracklogs.
> My Garmin has options for record method (Distance/Time/Auto) and
> interval (More often/Normal/Less often/Least often). I kept mine on
> "Auto/Normal".
>
> Wish list:
>
> * A "playback" feature of any GPS trace, with fast forward, a calendar
> and an analogue clock.
> * It would be wonderful to know who has created each existing way,
> mainly to collaborate on doing various bits of a city as part of one's
> fitness workout!
>
> I'll end more positively... I can highly recommend cycling as a superb
> way to capture points. I hope people brings bikes to I spent about 4
> hours cycling yesterday, and came back quite exhilarated to have found
> such productive way of keeping fit! The mental exercise - working out
> the most efficient path to "fill in" a few streets - is interesting: as
> you get more tired your path around the streets gets less efficient.
> Never has topology been so intimately connected with topography. To
> enhance the feeling of a workout being productive, and to get cities
> done in double-quick time, collaboration tools with other locals would
> be really desirable.
>
> I'd be happy to collate any responses on the list and add them to the Wiki.
>
> -- Laurence
>
> [1] Clifton Suspension Bridge; Canynge Square
> [2]
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/edit.html?lat=51.462471485&lon=-2.624981403&zoom=14
>
>
>
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>


--
Etienne
(Forgot to reply to the list again)