[OSM-talk] Newbie - queries and usability suggestions

[David Earl]

Hi Calum,

I asked many of the same things when I started about two months ago.

I still think that there are two fundamental aspects to OSM that need to
happen to make it a serious contender for anything (apart from getting more
data in there of course) namely:

(a) an order-of-magnitude better presentation that doesn't depend nearly so
much on how the segments are put together (I say this not as a criticism of
the huge voluntary effort that has already gone in, and also in recognition
that I should devote some of my time to it if I can); and also that happens
automatically (that seems to be coming).

(b) indications of completeness of data (i.e. this area is trustworthy, or
this bit isn't complete)

Here's a few things I discovered along the way that will be obvious to most
people reading the list, but not to newcomers like me:

* use JOSM with all the additional plugins. In particular, landsat gives you
a useful background (if you align it carefully with the GPS data - a new
feature), and mappaint gives you positive feedback when you've created ways
as the to the different kinds of way. I found it useful to change the xml
control file for this to make the colours match the map you can make for
yourself with osmarender and to thicken ways so they were obviously
different from tracks.

* I found it helpful to change the background colour to white in the options
(and text, lines etc to black of course). Though the place icons don't then
show up (but the ease on the eyes is worth it I think).

* Turn on arrowheads in the JOSM options. The direction of One way streets
and the rendering of text on the rather unintelligent rule-based osmarender
is based on which way the segments run. Make sure all the segments of  a way
run the same direction and are contiguous, otherwise the street names get
split up when rendered. Text runs in the direction of the arrow when
rendered. Sometimes one-way streets and direction of text are mutually
incompatible, Or sometimes its just too much like hard work to get them the
right way round. In which case set "name_direction:-1" and it will be
rendered the other way.

* the number of times I end up assigning properties to tracks because I
forget to turn them into a way before assigning properties is absurd. I have
not found a way to get round this.

* it's not possible to split a Way with JOSM, so its a good strategy to make
ways as short as possible. Keep roundabouts separate and break a way at that
point. Where a way branches multiple times (some estates have the same name
for a street that has three or four or more branches), keep the longest
straightest path as the named Way. There's not much point in naming the
shorter branches at present because osmarender truncates these and they
aren't readable. Don't try to make all the branches a single Way or the text
goes all over the place.

* to add nodes to a way you use SHIFT-N to change to insert a node in an
existing way (or track) and SHIFT-N to go back to adding nodes again.

* ALT click when selecting selects the track if there's a Way on top or
close by. CTRL click deselects.

* save frequently, there's no autosave. (I've found JOSM on windows quite
reliable, but who knows when you're going to get a power cut of a windows
blue-screen).

* I've found it helpful to get the data in as quickly as possible after I've
collected it - there's always things that I fail to note on my way round and
it is a pin to have to go back somewhere just to collect one bit of info.
I've experimented with camera, notepad, voice recorder and come to the
conclusion that for me on a bike, a combination of the last two are the
easiest for me.

* if you need to mark the location of some feature (e.g. a pub) and you are
mapping from a bike, do a long loop past the frontage, so you see it on the
trace.

* if you can' complete an area, put short stub roads in to indicate they
exist. I usually put e.g. "Somewhere Road (tbc)" as a memo to me as well as
indication for others. For longer distances (e.g. where a road goes out of
the edge of a town, and I'm not going to follow it, I tend to put "to
Somewhereville (tbc)" or some such, to distinguish from edge of town dead
ends (which don't render terribly well in any case).

David