[OSM-talk] Tag alt_name

[Pieren]

On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 2:14 AM, Matthias Julius <lists at julius-net.net> wrote:
> If the two names or spellings of the name are equal in preference they
> should both be included in the "name" tag, IMHO.
>
> I don't know any example, but if you search long enough you might find
> a road with three names.  What do you do then?  "another_alt_name"?
>

"name" should be reserved as the primary name used for applications
like renderers or routing and alt_name for all other variations
(separated by ";") for search engines like NameFinder.
If you write two or three variations in "name" itself, the software
applications will have either ugly results (e.g. a routing software
telling all variations of a street name) or no result at all (not
enough space in a map). And the real world does the same : you don't
find a sign with the two or three variations of a name but maybe two
or three different signs.
If you cannot find which variation is the primary, then choose one
arbitrarely. If you select the wrong one, someone else will fix it
later.
And don't forget that these variations are very rare since authorities
try to avoid them.
Pieren