osmeditor2 to Java, and a common Java OSM client library (was:Re: [OSM-talk] Java and freedom)

Tom Carden tom at tom-carden.co.uk
Thu May 25 16:15:21 BST 2006


On 25/05/06, Ben Gimpert <ben at somethingmodern.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 25 May 06 @02:24pm, Nick Whitelegg wrote:
> >
> > This discussion has got me thinking about converting osmeditor2 to
> > Java. I originally chose C++ as I had the following concerns about
> > Java:
>
> I've just cut what was going to be a long-winded, overly-defensive,
> flame-bait critique of Java.  Instead I'll attempt my appeal with some
> bullet points:
>

I've just cut what was going to be a long-winded, overly-defensive,
flame-bait critique of offline editors.  But then I've realised that I
should put it back in...

Offline editors are pointless given the current state of the OSM API.
Until the *API* (and not each and every client) deals effectively with
versioning and merging data, then offline clients are Broken As
Designed.  The nicer the offline client, the longer you will spend
using it, and the more likely conflicts between data will occur.

This will only get worse as the richness of OSM's data increases, as
the damage done by overwriting someone else's work will be subtle and
hard to spot without better tools.  Tools such as changelogs and
history information* for bounding boxes, which we touched on in
another thread.

Nick, I understand your desire to put your efforts into an all-in-one
editor that also talks to your GPS, but if you go with the 'small
pieces loosely joined' mentality that got the web so far, and let GPS
babel handle the GPS device, why would you write Yet Another Java
Editor and not just hack on the applet or JOSM?

If anyone wants encouragement to do anything in particular, I reckon
that the priorities are working on the website, online editors, API
and in particular getting edit history and talk pages for the maps.
Oh, and I think that putting SVG output online so that people can see
the fruit of their efforts will make the biggest contribution to OSM
in the near future.

Best,

Tom.

* Take a look at the IBM HistoryFlow visualisation for wikipedia - I
think we need something like that for the maps, so we can tell how
much editing has gone on, and who changed what, and when.




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