[OSM-talk] Newbie - queries and usability suggestions

[Barry Crabtree]

Hi Calum

I'm pretty new to this too - started about six weeks ago :-) & can add a few
things...

I'm still waiting for East Anglia to appear (well Ipswich really!) I'm sure
it will happen soon. If You've named any towns/villages you can look out for
them appearing at http://almien.co.uk/OSM/Places/?action=home

More comments below...

On 11/18/06, David Earl <david at frankieandshadow.com> wrote:
>
> 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.


Completely agree with this. Especially the  element styles list. Gives you a
dropdown of common tags that you'll want to use - road names/numbers etc.

* 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.


Same problem. The way round is to be fastidiously (boringly) consistent on
how you create the ways from the raw data. With new data I add the points,
add the segements that are going to be part of one road then immediately
turn it into a way (all the segements are selected), then add the properties
(using the dropdown boxes in JOSM), and on to the next. Works for me (most
of the time :-) ).


* 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.


Not sure I'd agree on not naming the shorter parts of the way if it is the
same road. Future versions of osmrender might be more intelligent about
labeling & if you you don't put the name in, then its lost...


* 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.


AKA learn the keyboard shortcuts :-)

* 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).


Do you mean upload the changes? Thats what I do. I'd agree with JOSM's
reliability, it's not crashed on me yet & I've used it pretty heavily since
I started - the only time to watch out is with loading up lots of images &
then it may run out of memory....


* 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.


I've done most of my mapping by car, taking pictures of road names/pubs as I
go round. Once you've uploaded a track in JOSM you can import all the photos
you have taken & if you sync the time on the camera, they line up with where
you took them. Bliss.

* 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


Cheers. .Baz

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