Frederik Ramm wrote: > > If you want to have shortened names in the database, then I would put > them in there explicitly, like so: > > name=Viale don Luigi Sturzo > name_short_1=V.le don Luigi Storzo > name_short_2=V.le Luigi Sturzo > name_short_3=V.le L.Sturzo > > But generally I believe the renderer should just have proper rules > about shortening and use them - so you would only employ above scheme > for exceptions that the renderer cannot derive automatically.
Not sure whether you can find an algorithm that actually manages to find the correct short versions for all possible languages and places. You can't just shorten, say, Viale to V.le on a general basis as it may appear as a main part of a name. The shortening is only possibly if (a) you are in Italy or the Italian part of Switzerland and (b) it appears as the first word. It gets even trickier, if you want to shorten or even leave out first or middle names like Luigi in the above example. Is the first of two names a first name or rather the first part of a double name? An alternative approach would be some sort of name expression. Something like name_expr=(Viale|V.le) [don] [(Luigi|L[.])] Sturzo This also covers odd cases like my own street which is either a Via or a Viale, depending on whom you ask. Instead of having lots of alternative or shorter names, it becomes simply name_expre=(Via|Viale) [Battista] Foletti (I haven't seen viale shortened to V.le just yet). The drawback is that these expressions tend to get out of hand and that you will have to escape brackets, parentheses and vertical bars. But if the parens are replaced by braces, this should be reasonably safe. And I don't think, this needs anything more complex than just alternatives and optionality. If a canonical name exists, it can go into the name tag just like today. Regards, Martin _______________________________________________ talk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk
