[OSM-talk] Name finder: "Budapesterplatz" vs. "Budapester platz"

[Ulf Lamping]

David Earl schrieb:
> On 17/08/2007 00:16, Ulf Lamping wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>> The name finder at http://www.frankieandshadow.com/osm/ won't find 
>> "Budapesterplatz", but "Budapester Platz" is found here in Nürnberg.
>>
>> While "Budapester Platz" is the correct term, it would be nice if 
>> slightly misstyped things like this would be found as well.
>>
>> Could it be added to the name finders "fuzzy search engine", that 
>> "Budapesterplatz" and similiar "combined search words" are found as 
>> well - or will this be too complicated to implement?
>
> I'll have a think about it. It is built around matching words at the 
> moment, so I don't think it will be straightforward, but then I 
> appreciate there is a problem here especially in the Germanic and 
> Scandinavian languages.
>
> I think it ill be much harder to find a street named "Budapester 
> Platz" if you type "Budapesterplatz" than the other way round. But 
> having made that observation may help me solve the problem.
>
> While I'm at it, what kind of abbreviation is common in these cases? 
> Do people write Hauptbahnstr for Haupbahnstrasse or Hauptbahnstraße? 
Difficult to say what "people" do ;-) AFAIK the correct term is 
Hauptbahnstraße (laut german Duden, which is the "normative reference").

However, I guess for a search engine it's a good idea to be able to find 
all three forms, as none of them is completely uncommon. BTW: another 
possibility would be "Hauptbahnstr.".
> Would you ever write Budapesterpl. or would it naturally always be 
> Budapester Pl. abbreviated, if indeed abbreviation is used at all?
I personally would always use Budapesterplatz as a first try - it's the 
easiest to type. However, having a search engine that will ignore those 
differences completely would be my personal hero ;-)

Maybe it's an idea to simply strip off white space and special chars 
(like '-', '.')?


Regards, ULFL

P.S.: While we're at it, some more german specialties that might be 
interesting to take into account:
Weg - a small street, sometimes to be used by foot / bicycle only (will 
be abbreviated with w. or W.)
Gasse - similiar to Weg, but usually in older towns like Nürnberg (will 
be abbreviated with g. or G.)