OpenStreetMap
Yeah, the new history tab is cool. I can see edits in my neighbourhood
and find people editing the same places.
But listing the edits is not quite of use by now.
All information you get is node/way/relation number and a bounding box. Which technically may be all you need, but for a human this data is useless. Mostly the bounding box is the only clue about what the person was edditing.
Would it be possible to highlight all eddited nodes/ways in the mini-map on the changeset page? To see what the edit was all about? Or, 'cause this is easier to implement, display the value of the name tag along with the node/way number (if present)?
This would really push this feature a lot.
Discussion
Comment from LivingWithDragons on 23 April 2009 at 11:17
The user can leave a comment on the change set, and most people seem to be describing what/where they did.
In JOSM it prompts you to add a comment. In Potlatch (the Edit tab editor), press C after making your changes.
My edits might give you an idea. @LivingWithDragons/edits
Comment from Chaos99 on 23 April 2009 at 11:29
Yeah, I'm using the feature in JOSM. It comes natural if you are used to give comments on CVS or SVN commits. But most users (mostly potlatch users) don't give comments. It's not as prominent in potlatch as it is in JOSM, so most people surely just don't know.
But even with comments it would be nice to actually see on a map which ways or nodes they altered or created.
But it's even more complicated than I thought in the first place because newly created nodes and way aren't in the rendered map. So some 'recent edits' show an empty bounding box.
Comment from Richard on 23 April 2009 at 12:32
If someone can tell me (and has actually tried it and verified it works, not just Googled it) how to call JavaScript from ActionScript 1 _without_ Internet Explorer making a clicking noise, then I can make Potlatch prompt you for a comment on exit. But I can't really do it without figuring that out, and I don't have IE to test - or at least not a version that will click!
Comment from Chaos99 on 23 April 2009 at 13:08
I can't help you as my knowledge of action script is zero and that of javascript just a little above.
But your comment implies a question: Do you know a way to do it WITH ie making a clicking sound? Then a next question comes up: what's bad about that clicking sound?
Enough pointless questions. But a small suggestion: until you figure out how to do it, why not just place a small note somewhere how to do it with pressing 'C'. And maybe even a little sentence about it being 'the nice way' to do it.
Sorry if thats not appropriate, I rarely use potlatch and can't really comment on its workings. I didn't know about that "C" option until now.
But I still believe that this is a missing feature in the display of the recent edits and not a fault of potlatch or its users. The information needed IS there. It just needs to be presented in a better way.
Comment from Richard on 23 April 2009 at 16:02
Well, the issue is that Potlatch (AS) needs to tell the browser (JS) whether (a) there are any unsaved changes and (b) whether a comment has been left. Every time it updates the status, there's a click - which gets really, really annoying when it happens at the start and end of every edit (as (a) implies). (b) could in theory be done on its own but I'd like to solve both at once as they're essentially the same issue.
A small note would require rejigging the screen display which takes it beyond the realms of "small", but I am thinking about it. :) Right now the priority is on fixing the remaining bugs in the API 0.6 support rather than nice-to-haves like this though, I'm afraid.
Comment from Chaos99 on 23 April 2009 at 17:14
> Right now the priority is on fixing the remaining bugs in the API 0.6 support rather than nice-to-haves like this though, I'm afraid.
I'm with you there. I'm happy if you may keep it in mind for some spare time in the future.
Comment from Richard on 23 April 2009 at 17:57
Well, the good news is that I've worked out how to call JS from AS in WinIE - I think...!
Comment from Chaos99 on 23 April 2009 at 19:03
Btw: do you know how the 'end of editing' is handled with potlatch?
I've noticed that in the history tab my session stays open a long time after I've finished editing. As there is no 'done' or 'exit' button in potlatch I simply close the browser tab.
Maybe this is (also) a reason for the edits-of-far-away-points-cause-a-giant-bounding-box-which-clutters-the-history-of-small-aereas-bug reported in another user diary. I haven't tested that, but does an open session continue if I start potlatch in another browser window and the history thinks I'm still edditing in the first one?