[OSM-talk] Potlatch :-)

Gerald A geraldablists at gmail.com
Thu Nov 22 14:05:48 GMT 2007


Hi Richard,

On 11/22/07, Richard Fairhurst <richard at systemed.net> wrote:
> Sorry, but I'm getting fed up with this.
>
> > A Potlatch-User now has half Rosenau  (Nuremberg) disposed :-( As
> > long as the tool does not work, you should be Off.

On this same vein, maybe "rm" should be removed from Unix, because there
is a possibility for widespread data loss if you add "-rf /" as an option?

While I agree that OSM needs a nice way to do revert/undo/restore, I too am
tired of hearing how it's all the fault of Potlatch. An editor can be
as or more distructive
in JOSM, or any other tool for that matter. Potlatch just takes the
heat because it's
easier or even because it's the first tool people use. This speaks to
it's popularity, not
it's broken-ness.

> As it says in the original mail, the functionality was temporarily
> disabled on the main OSM server in the hope of some peer review:
> "because this is new ground for OSM, I'd appreciate it if people could
> test it on their local installs".
>
> How many whingers like you have taken five minutes to test it and mail
> me your results? Answer: 0. That is the sole, the only reason why
> there is no undo yet. And I don't see you committing any undo feature
> to the standard API or your beloved JOSM.

I read with great anticipation this change, but I'm still a mountain's
climb away
from knowing how to get a working OSM replica going, forget even knowing what
Potlatch is coded in (Flash/Actionscript?). I'm willing to help, but
it'll take some time until I would be in a position to test,
unfortunately. And while I think this feature would greatly help _me_
if I make a mistake, I'm not sure it would help stem the flow of these
e-mails.

While "undo" is a fabulous idea, and helps an editor that knows what
they are doing, for someone that doesn't yet know, or care, how things
look on the map, how does it help? There will still be cries of
"disable that busted Potlatch, some idiot user deleted half my work".
The only way to solve that is to build true undo into the API itself,
to allow us to choose versions of the data.

Does that mean that the current work is useless? Not at all. But we
have to take such complaints with a grain of salt. OSM has advanced
leaps and bounds, it is still an evolving project. That means that
errors are going to happen, and we could even have an API issue where
it deletes or mangles something. Everyone wants true API based undo,
and it will get there, but it will take time.

> Are you going to stop entering new data? I, personally, don't care.
> But I would appreciate it if you'd stop entering shite into your
> mailer and posting it to the OSM lists.

Here's something to ponder. Is there any way for users to take a copy
of their work, so that they can "restore" what has been
deleted/changed, in a straightforward way?

I understand your frustration as toolmaker here, but I also understand
people who are mapping being flustered by their hard work being
vapourized. They are unfortunately venting against a productive tool
(which you are working hard on), rather then users that aren't
understanding how it works.

Smiley retained; Potlatch makes me happy too. :)

Thanks,
Gerald




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