On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 12:25 AM, Martin Koppenhoefer < dieterdre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On 10. Aug 2018, at 00:42, Daniel McCormick <mccorm...@kaartgroup.com> > wrote: > > > > While the default renderer favors name=* over name:nl or name:fr that is > not the case for other renderers. We as contributors might think that is > the most prominent way to view the data but not all renderers are the same. > Having our data be specific in saying this is the French name, this is the > Flemish name and this is the German name gives the data more flexibility > than just having all languages thrown into one name=* field. > > nobody questions the usefulness of name:language tags, the question is > only what, if anything, to put in the name tag in multilingual areas (and > also this is a term which can describe a lot of different realities, which > not necessarily have to be treated all the same). > Two things. 1) It is said to be standard practice to render what is observable on the ground. A minute's walk from where I live is a street sign that says: Heol Napier Napier Street That is what I observe. See https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.0857064,-4.6583686,3a,15.4y,86.99h,96.29t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQGH0BhhjxXX2ctr-1NxmOg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 I don't need to know which languages are spoken in this region, or what language(s) the sign is in, that is what the sign SAYS and that is what should be mapped (in my opinion). 2) Ordinary consumers (people looking at OSM and trying to figure out where they are) need to know what signs SAY. Presenting them with half the information increases the cognitive load on somebody trying to figure out where they are when GPS is not very accurate. If they are unfamiliar with the languages involved then "Heol Napier Napier Street" may not be the same as "Napier Street" but a separate entity (perhaps its a side street branching off Napier Street). As it happens, I know that Heol Napier is the Welsh name of the street and Napier Street is the English name, but not everyone consuming the data will know (or want to know) that. They are more likely to be concerned with confirming that they are where they think they are. Having name:cy and name:en will perhaps permit vector maps to display names in a language of choice, but lacking that name=* should (in my opinion) show what is actually there. Anything else is perverse. As another matter, Wikipedia has an OSM-derived project that translates all names into as many languages as possible. I'm not sure this is useful. This might make sense for the tag info that comes back from a query, such as the Chinese for "addr:street" but not so much for the name of the street itself (which is almost always the equivalent of an arbitrary label). I'd say that for actual names, transliterations would be useful but translations would not (if you're asking a local and know the local language for "Where is" and can pronounce the name then that is more useful than knowing what the name means in your own language. -- Paul
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