On Wed, 22 Apr 2020 at 12:40, Martin Koppenhoefer <dieterdre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > but the building is also a thing, it has its own properties, e.g. > start_date, wikipedia reference, architect, operator, name, height, etc > This is all true. And in an ideal world we'd map the building and its occupying object as two separate-but-coincident objects. This isn't an ideal world. :( Problem 1. A popular editor makes it VERY hard to deal with coincident objects. All it would take would be a modifier key (such as control) to cycle through all coincident objects sharing the node or way clicked on. Instead you get whichever object it decides to give you and can't get at the other(s). The only way I've found is to disconnect a node, drag that node so it is no longer coincident with other objects, click on the now separated objects until I find the one I want, modify it, move the node back to where it was. Maybe there's a simple, obvious way of doing it that I'm missing, but I haven't found it. For as long as that editor makes it painful to have coincident objects then people will avoid using them unless forced to for other reasons (there is no other way of mapping some aspect of one of the objects that they consider a necessary feature). Problem 2: Duplication of address info. The building has an address irrespective of the occupying object. But it is convenient for consumers querying the occupying object to get the address of the occupying organization in a single step. "Don't repeat yourself" is a good maxim, but one we must flout with coincident objects. Unless you want the pain of not putting an address on the building if it is occupied, but transferring the address from the occupier to the building prior to deleting the occupier when the building becomes vacant. Using a node for the occupying entity gets rid of problem 1 but does not get rid of problem 2. And introduces problem 3: some types of entity render if they have an area and building=yes but do not render (not even a label) if they are nodes. Clubs and crafts are two examples I can think of. As for healthcare=alternative, if the building has an addr;housename then that is used as the label rather than the name=*. Our tagging practices are heavily influenced by the limitations of the tools we use... -- Paul
_______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
