On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 9:11 PM, Andy Mabbett <a...@pigsonthewing.org.uk> wrote: > On 25 October 2010 12:47, Ed Avis <e...@waniasset.com> wrote: >> Shaun McDonald <sh...@...> writes: > >>>I have been adding the three letter short code as the ref tag when I have >>>been >>>editing around stations. e.g. >>>http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/node/9779990 >> >> OK so 'ref' is the de facto convention for this three-letter code. > > Wouldn't it be better to have a unique key? > > If not, why not? > > (Genuine question; I'm relatively new to this.) >
The contents of the ref tag is generally the publicly used reference code for an object. For roads that'd be M1 or A303 etc. For stations it'd be the three letter code that's in all the timetables and gets printed on online booking receipts etc. There's no harm in using ref for this as it doesn't really conflict with anything else and it's what the key is for. To do a special key would be a lot like doing a special key for station_name -- there's little point and it just makes it harder for everyone to remember what the keys are :-) The main reason you would do a special key is if there where two distinct references of equal prominence and it wasn't appropriate to use loc_ref (local), int_ref (international) etc. In this case the naptan code should use it's own key because nobody (in the general public at least) actually uses them, leaving the ref key open for the common 3 letter code. Dave _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
