Maybe what we need are some guidelines for making tags. "You can make any tag you want, but here are some general principals about what makes a good key and what makes good values for those keys."
At the very least we would have a framework for discussion. Someone type something up on the wiki. On Sat, May 10, 2008 at 12:48 AM, Dave Stubbs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I can see the attraction to the use of numbers for the values of the > > highway tag. Having a new system that does not use terms that > > have other meanings can force people to think about the OSM > > definitions of the values. The UK centric terms have this effect > > for me. I have to think about what motorway means for the US > > or Korea in terms of the OSM definition because I have no competing > > definition of the term motorway in my mind. For me motorway > > only has an OSM definition. > > > > People in countries with roads called motorways have a conflict > > in their minds. If a section of a UK motorway is a single lane > > dirt track then someone in the UK may be tempted to label > > it as a motorway because it has a motorway sign. (That's just > > a hyperbole to make a point. Let's keep discussions of the > > highway tag itself on a separate thread.) > > > > One solution to this psychology problem is to use terms > > that do not have a local meaning. Numbering might be > > one way to do that for some tags but not for others. > > > > Another way to solve this psychological problem is to hide > > the recorded data from the user. Something like presets > > was suggested. Having different terms being used by the > > person who writes the rendering rules and the person > > collecting the data might cause other problems. > > > > > There are some genuine problems that need solving -- tag translation, > tagging hierarchies, tag documentation and guides, and some "bad" tags > in common use to name but a few. > > Unfortunately people seem most interested in solving these problems > via the magic bullet approach. This basically involves turning > everything on it's head, adding a level of indirection or two, putting > in some extra technical elements, and finally hoping that someone will > take the opportunity of the wholesale change to actually fix the > problem. > > The highway tag has well known problems; mostly that it's a highly > subjective short cut for lots of tags and widely differing concepts, > of which nobody is entirely sure which takes precedence. This doesn't > get fixed by making everyone use numbers. Numbers are not an > intrinsicly better model of road types, nor do they make it easier to > create such a model. > > Tags can be translated from English just as easily as they can be > translated from numbers. Presets can be created using english tags as > well as they can for numeric tags. > > Numbers do not possess a natural hierarchy of feature types, nor do > they make such hierarchies easier to create. > > Numbers are an abstraction, that's all they are. The present tag > names/values are also generally abstractions... just human readable > ones. > > Dave > > PS. This isn't aimed at anyone in particular, just a general observation. > -- http://bowlad.com
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