On 19.01.2015 12:06, Paul Johnson wrote:
> This seems like a particularly strange edge case for the address scheme, but
> I'm curious if any of those valid addresses are consider the "primary?"

Usually the postal address which you give in your official documents is
considered the primary. But this address may not be suitable for other uses.
E.g. I live in an apartment complex that extends over 2 building blocks:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1060497
The postal address is Davidgasse 76-80, staircase (addr:unit) 14. My windows
are heading to the Buchengasse. The Davidgasse is not even adjacent to the
whole block. So nobody finds to me when I tell them my postal address. I
need to tell them I live in Gußriegelstraße 5, because that's the location
of the building passage that leads to the correct corner of the courtyard.
The chimney sweep uses Buchengasse 151 though, because that's the street
where my apartment (and the chimney) is located.

So I'd say that Davidgasse 76-80 is the primary address (addr:*),
Gußriegelstraße 5 the secondary address (addr2:*), and Buchengasse 151 the
tertiary address (addr3:*).
Malborghetgasse 6 (addr4:*) and Rotenhofgasse 86-88 (addr5:*) are also
equivalent, but are never actually used for my side of the building.

> And
> if that's the case, what's wrong with creating a node on the building for
> each additional valid address?  People looking for an amenity could look up
> closest POIs after finding a secondary address.  It's not a clean situation,

It's a "best guess" approach, delivering lots of false positives, because
the scope of address nodes is undefined. The address may be valid for the
whole building, or only part of the building, or even for multiple buildings
(take my postal address as an example).

> but it does have a couple advantages:
> 
>   * Works with existing data consumers

That's fine, but if that were a criterion, OSM wouldn't exist. I think that
addresses are important enough to justify extensions of applications.

>   * Simple for users to tag.

addr2 is simple too. It's just one more character. And you don't need to
create additional nodes, let alone relations as suggested somewhere in this
discussion.

-- 
Friedrich K. Volkmann       http://www.volki.at/
Adr.: Davidgasse 76-80/14/10, 1100 Wien, Austria

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