[OSM-talk] Explicit tagging of name language
MD
mde.proj at gmail.com
Mon Dec 6 10:22:06 GMT 2010
Hi,
Ed Avis wrote:
[...]
> I believe the answer, as so often, is to improve the tagging used so that
> software has the information it needs. In this case an explicit English-
> language name should be added, so we have
>
> name=Scotland
> name:en=Scotland
> name:fr=Ecosse
> name:es=Escocia
>
> (Another way to tag the same info would be to invent a new tag
> 'language_of_main_name=en' but this seems cumbersome and would not be understood
> by existing software.)
This is also the solution I am using when tagging stuff in the German
Community of Belgium, where many places, streets, etc have both german
and french names. But this is indeed a problem in many areas - with
special focus on countries with more than one official language. (But of
course also - for example - in touristic places and elsewhere.)
The only objection I have is that it introduces some sort of redundancy
- even if small. I can't think of a better solution so far, though.
> In the new year I plan to write a small tool to help fix these, prompting a
> human being to decide or at least verify the language of each name. Then an
> additional name:XX tag will be added to the object. Sound sensible?
Could be a solution, I think.
Michael
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