[OSM-talk] Languages

[Pieren]

On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 11:25 AM, "Marc Schütz" <schuetzm at gmx.net> wrote:
>>    name=Bergstrasse

How do we know if the tag "name" is German ? Well, because it's a geo
db and we know where the element is. Make the live of contributors
easy and let software working hard for us.

Here are my comments I wrote on the wiki "discussion" page (but it
seems that the discussion is here ;-) :

First, you probably know that the tag "name" already exists in
millions OSM objects. And most of them are only in the local language.
So, if you think that the tag "language" could be automatically added
for most of the countries, then you understand that it can be also
solved in applications rather than in the database.

The current schema is quite easy to understand and the smallest effort
for contributors (which is an important point):

For countries with a single language:
* "name" is the local language
* "name:iso_code" is the translation to another language
For countries with more than one local language:
* "name" is the collection of all local languages
* "name:iso_code" is the translation to each local language

You say in your email: "An example. I want a German map, but when
there are no German names I'd prefer English ones."

This can be solved in your rendering application. For all names inside Germany:
* if "name" exists => use it
* else if "name:en" exists => use it
For other countries:
* if "name:de" exists => use it
* else if "name:en" exists => use it.
* else use "name" (local language as a last option)
Applying different rules in different areas shouldn't be an issue for
softwares in our domaine.

Pieren