[OSM-talk] NoName

Gervase Markham gerv-gmane at gerv.net
Mon Sep 15 13:52:05 BST 2008


Frederik Ramm wrote:
> The absence of a name property from an object is not generally 
> significant (how many of our objects have a name - probably less than 
> 5%). Those that don't have a name simply don't have a name and it works 
> well for editors and renderers alike; nobody has ever even thought of 
> issuing all of them with a special tag documenting the absence of a name.
> 
> The absence of a name becomes only significant in the context of a 
> certain check we run on our data, which operates on the assumption that 
> roads of a certain kind usually bear a name.

I agree that the absence of a name is only significant in certain
contexts for certain types of object - primarily roads. But I don't
think it's just about "tests" - is the noname map a "test"?

The fact that this is mostly only a problem for names, and mostly only a
problem for roads, makes me think that we have to look carefully at the
trade-offs between a specific solution such as "noname=yes" and a more
complex, general solution such as "test_ignore=name_present" which, you
will have to admit, is not as obvious a tagging scheme!

But still, if people are going to object to name=none, and think
noname=yes is too specific, then I'd much rather have this than nothing.

Gerv





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