[OSM-talk] Making iD the default editor on osm.org

Lester Caine lester at lsces.co.uk
Sat Aug 24 09:00:26 UTC 2013


Colin Smale wrote:
> What about when an object (perhaps a road or a boundary) is replaced by a better
> approximation? The history of the database objects is already dealt with (you
> can access old versions and see when it was deleted). Typically in these cases
> the new version gets drawn/uploaded, the tags are copied over and the old
> version is deleted. So there will be an ongoing need for a delete button. Maybe
> your suggestion would be well supported by a "clone POI" operation, which
> creates a duplicate of the selected POI and deletes the old version with one
> click of the mouse?

And in this case a substantial amount of history gets lost!

Case 1 ... better imagery shows that the location of a way is wrong ... so move 
the way to the new location! Do not delete the way and and start again from 
scratch. This is were 'imports' are very badly broken, and when a new import is 
applied it should update the one it replaces especially when other material may 
well now be using the original nodes? We have many years of 'history' building 
up, but if that is wiped every time some new raw data is loaded information is lost.

Case 2 ... an area is redeveloped and the road structure and buildings replaced 
with a new layout. In this case the old layout very much needs retaining and is 
exactly the sort of thing that needs to be transferred to an historic map. Again 
- delete - is totally the wrong action!

Case 3 ... vandalism creating havoc ... this can only be correctly handled by 
reverting the change set ... a delete button is not the right tool!

Case 4 ... you add something wrong to the map while editing ... use undo!

Bottom line - remove the delete button :)

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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