OpenStreetMap
From JOSM search & replace to processing Openstreetmap with your favorite text edition tools
Posted by Jean-Marc Liotier on 25 August 2015 in English.There you are, in some Openstreemap editor, correcting the same typo for the 16th time, cursing contributors who neglect correct capitalization and thinking about how tedious this necessary data gardening is. While JOSM is endowed with unfathomable depths of cartographic potentiality, you long for a way to simply whip out your favourite text editor and apply its familiar power to the pedestrian problem of repeatedly editing text. Or the problem requires editing multiple mutually dependent tags and some XML-aware logic is therefore required – all the same: you just want to perform Openstreetmap editing as text processing. [..]
Discussion
Comment from naoliv on 25 August 2015 at 13:24
https://josm.openstreetmap.de/ticket/8437
:-(
Comment from Jean-Marc Liotier on 25 August 2015 at 14:59
Well, this is my workaround - and it does not depend on anything but the JOSM XML format, so it is entirely decoupled from JOSM and therefore provides maximal flexibility !
Comment from naoliv on 25 August 2015 at 17:23
I do something similar to https://josm.openstreetmap.de/ticket/8437#comment:3
But I would really like to have a better replace tool inside JOSM.
Comment from Warin61 on 26 August 2015 at 00:24
The ‘mechanical’ rules/guide would be complied with if for each and every replacement you confirmed the replacement .. this can be done with some text editors, just don’t select the automatically replace everything button …
This is ‘good’ for abbreviations like Rd to Road, St to Street etc.
Comment from SomeoneElse on 27 August 2015 at 09:37
Seriously, instead of “cursing contributors who neglect correct capitalization” talk to them about it - explain what the problem is politely, and offer to help them fix it. We’re likely talking about new and inexperienced mappers here - they need help not silent abuse :)
As the proverb goes “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime”.
Comment from Jean-Marc Liotier on 27 August 2015 at 09:57
@SomeoneElse - you are right… And that is what I do and promote - maybe I should have mentioned it. My standard approach is “Hello $contributor, [thanks for contribution etc.], if I may suggest a methodological improvement etc.” but this approach hits its limit when faced with hit & run contributors that are probably recruited in the context of some event and go AWOL afterwards. That said, I have been successful with a few in establishing communication and helping them improve - those who respond are usually happy to talk to someone instead of contributing in isolation.