On 17/01/2016, Hakuch <hak...@posteo.de> wrote: > for me the use of alt_name_1 is more logical than the name_1, because > alt_name is the meaning of name_1! So, if you have a second name and you > dont know where to put it (loc_name, old_name...) you can use alt_name. > And if you have a third name you SHOULD use alt_name:name2;name3 but in > a bad manor you can use alt_name_1=name2, alt_name_2=name3. But name_1 > doesn't make any sense.
Well "alt_foo" and "foo_1" both mean "here's another value for foo". So "alt_foo_1" expand to something like "here's another another value for foo". "alt_" and "_1" are two ways of saying "another", and juxtaposing two "adverbs" with the same meaning is superfluous and grammatically akward. To use another analogy, it's like talking about the "TCP protocol" or the "MIT institude of technology". And because "_1" naturally naturally brings "_2" and so on (while "alt_" doesn't naturally bring any followup), it makes sense to give up on "alt_" altogether. It doesn't bring any benefit compared to "_1" (but "loc_", "old_" and others are still ok because they carry a different meaning). Concerning your suggestion to use "name=n1 alt_name=n2;n3", let me rethorically wonder why you didn't suggest "name=n1;n2;n3" ? I expect it is because the risk of semicolons in the "name" tag catching some consumers unaware. Well, that risk of catching consumers unaware is pretty much the same with semicolons in "name" as in "alt_name". So when are semicolons a reasonable way to specify multiple values ? IMHO whenever the values are fixed or sanitizable (unlike for example "name", which the mapper has no control over), and empty fields don't make sense. There are actually quite few of them that wouldn't benefit from a more elaborate mapping or tagging scheme. "Sport" and "ref" are likely fine, but I'd rather leave the fun of determining which keys are semicolon-safe as an exercise to future generations of mappers and consumers. Myself, I'd rather use foo_1 everywhere and stop worrying. Obligatory xkcd quote: https://xkcd.com/327/ _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
