Re: [OSM-dev] Make Nominatim more dev friendly
Hi, I'm not a Nominatim developer but I've followed Nominatim development and issues for a while. One thing that contributes to the impression that "pull requests/issues are ignored" is that Nominatim aims to be a good, or at least a functioning, geocoder for the whole planet. Contributors (understandably - that's how Open Source works) often scratch their own itch, they find a problem with Spanish addresses and submit a fix - but they don't notice (or care) that it breaks geocoding elsewhere (for example https://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/4895 where someone adds stop words). It is then the role of the Nominatim developers to think about the effects the contributor might have been missing, and tell him or her "sorry, but that doesn't work for us". This is actually good and important - it may look unfriendly to you (albeit there's nothing unfriendly in the ticket I quoted) but in fact it ensures that Nominatim doesn't break for some country once a week. > Unfortunately there's not much I can do about it apart > from pointing the problems to wider audience. You said you're a developer, have you actually tried to participate in the Nominatim devlopment? > [4] - https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/467 Are you the user "sanitas2" from this issue? I've read through it and I must say that I find the reaction of the developers absolutely understandable. I don't think you have been helpful, respectful, or polite in that issue. > Anyway, I think the solutions to the problems are quite obvious. How can I > convince someone to make the project open and friendly to new collaborators? I think this public claim that the current developers ignore "obvious solutions" won't do much good to improve their enthusiasm. What is your suggestion? Chuck out the "unfriendly" developers and replace them with whom? Or force the developers to spend more of their spare time trying to understand your issue? Can you point me to a good pull request that you have submitted and that was ignored/rejected even though it didn't break anything? Bye Frederik -- Frederik Ramm ## eMail frede...@remote.org ## N49°00'09" E008°23'33" ___ dev mailing list dev@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/dev
Re: [OSM-dev] [OSM-talk] Make Nominatim more dev friendly
Hi Mariusz,
(cross-posting to talk removed, as this is essentially a dev mail)
I'm glad to hear that you are concerned about Nominatim development.
That makes two of us. As a software developer, the most effective
way to change things is to start contributing code. So here are a few
pointers for that.
The outstanding pull requests you mention are a very good place to start.
There are quite a few which have not been merged because there are
outstanding comments from me which the original authors never addressed.
In particular, I'd like to point to:
https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/pull/552
https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/pull/439
https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/pull/429
They are pretty far along. They would need to be updated to the current
master version and have the remaining issues fixed.
If that's not to your liking you can also look through the issues.
Anything marked 'enhancement' is particularly suited for external
contributions. I haven't marked the difficulty level but here are
a few examples, I'd consider good starting points for first time
code contributors:
https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/562
https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/135
https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/171
https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/255
https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/344
https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/311
The comments on the issues can be sparse at times, so feel free to ask
for clarifications. As a general rule, it is also a good idea to quickly
outline your implementation idea first, in particular where the solution
is not obvious or where larger changes are required. That helps avoid
disappointment during PR review.
If you have general questions about the source code, the geocoding@
mailing list is the right place to ask.
Sarah
(Nominatim lead developer)
On Wed, Feb 01, 2017 at 07:34:53PM +0100, Mariusz Rogowski wrote:
> blockquote {padding-left: 1ex; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; border-left:
> #cc 1px solid;} p {margin: 0px;padding: 0px;}
> Hi,I am not sure if this is right pleace to rise my concerns or if
> they are welcomed here. But I will give it a try.I am not an
> active member of community, I am software developer who sporadically has to
> geocode some addresses. For some regions of the world OSM is the best source
> of data and it is a shame tools for searching the data fall behind. In my
> opinion Nominatim could have been very useful service which would promote OSM
> usage. Seriously, for many applications
> searching addresses is very important feature. Nominatim should be like
> second most important service given to the world by OSM. Unfortunately it
> seems to be far away from the spotlight and people might not be aware of its
> problems. What I mean is:1. There are pull requests (i.e. probably
> finished features ready to integrate with project) starting from year 2012.
> Yes - somebody contributed to the project and is wating 5 years to have his
> contribution accepted. [1]2. There are over
> 100 issues opened starting from 2013. [2]3. Project is understaffed
> (which I guess can happen). But its maintainers are aware of it and do not do
> anything to change it. [3]Anyway, I work in software development
> and I could be contributing to the project. But fact the contributions are
> ignored, maintainers are frustrated (and it shows) make me thing it is a
> waste of time. Even providing real life examples of wrong geocoding (so the
> test cases could be extended) ends with some
> unfriendliness and ignorance. [4] I
> understand there are probably valid reasons for current state and atitude.
> But discussing it does not really interests me. I wish to change things ;)
> Unfortunately there's not much I can do about it apart from pointing the
> problems to wider audience. Anyway, I think the solutions to the
> problems are quite obvious. How can I convince someone to make the project
> open and friendly to new collaborators? />Mariusz[1] - https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/pulls />[2] - https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues[3] -
> https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/316#issuecomment-147111016 />[4] - https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/467
>
>
>
> ___
> talk mailing list
> t...@openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
___
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[OSM-dev] Make Nominatim more dev friendly
Hi,I am not sure if this is right pleace to rise my concerns or if they are welcomed here. But I will give it a try.I am not an active member of community, I am software developer who sporadically has to geocode some addresses. For some regions of the world OSM is the best source of data and it is a shame tools for searching the data fall behind. In my opinion Nominatim could have been very useful service which would promote OSM usage. Seriously, for many applications searching addresses is very important feature. Nominatim should be like second most important service given to the world by OSM. Unfortunately it seems to be far away from the spotlight and people might not be aware of its problems. What I mean is:1. There are pull requests (i.e. probably finished features ready to integrate with project) starting from year 2012. Yes - somebody contributed to the project and is wating 5 years to have his contribution accepted. [1]2. There are over 100 issues opened starting from 2013. [2]3. Project is understaffed (which I guess can happen). But its maintainers are aware of it and do not do anything to change it. [3]Anyway, I work in software development and I could be contributing to the project. But fact the contributions are ignored, maintainers are frustrated (and it shows) make me thing it is a waste of time. Even providing real life examples of wrong geocoding (so the test cases could be extended) ends with some unfriendliness and ignorance. [4] I understand there are probably valid reasons for current state and atitude. But discussing it does not really interests me. I wish to change things ;) Unfortunately there's not much I can do about it apart from pointing the problems to wider audience. Anyway, I think the solutions to the problems are quite obvious. How can I convince someone to make the project open and friendly to new collaborators?Mariusz[1] - https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/pulls[2] - https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues[3] - https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/316#issuecomment-147111016[4] - https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/467 ___ dev mailing list dev@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/dev
