Andy Street wrote:
On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 15:20:58 +0000
Lester Caine <les...@lsces.co.uk> wrote:
Martin Koppenhoefer wrote:
I would like to request that 'start_date' is automatically
populated with ad the very least, the current date, but with an
option to update it based on what is being traced from?
if you are refering to the tag "start_date" than I strongly oppose
this idea. Hardly ever will the start_date of an object be the same
than the time the mappers adds it.
I am referring to using 'start_date' is it is currently documented
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:start_date
At a very minimum putting a current timestamp in will give a starting
point since we know it is valid today, although a future start date
is also possible. It is creating the habit of populating it and
encouraging the addition where it is known.
The start_date is the date that it feature came into existence not the
date it was mapped so automatically populating it will just lead to
junk data that is indistinguishable from the real valid data. What you
really asking for is an auto-generated start_date_sometime_before tag
but that data is already logged in the changesets.
There is also the matter of *what* started. Take the following example:
building=yes
amenity=pub
name=The Mappers Rest
start_date=2013-11-15
Was the building first opened on that date? or was it when the pub began
trading? Perhaps that was when the name changed? To do this properly
you'll need to automatically add a start_date_sometime_before tag for
every tag in the database!
Changes to details on the object would be covered by the changelog entries. At
this stage simply a date that physical building came into existence would be
nice. That only the current view of the object is provided is what 'The Data' is
designed to supply, and in this instance the start_date is when the building
physically appeared ...
You are perfectly correct that there are more start_dates needed, but starting
today, any information change such as 'The Mapper Rest'->'The Mappers Arms'
would be fairly accurate using the changelog dates. When it is scheduled to
change at a future date, we have no means of recording that data. 'The Data'
does not do history even if it relates to live data? We have to make those
changes in real time rather than relying on the API serving the time correct view!
--
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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