OpenStreetMap
I'm trying to understand how the maps work before I start editing (inserting)anything!...
Firstly, as I zoom in on a section of map, a town name - say Hungerford, UK - appears visible, then disappears, then reappears depending upon the level of zoom. The same is true of features such as Locks on the Kennet & Avon canal west of Hungerford, near Crofton.
Is there a way of ensuring (at editing stage) that a feature will remain visible at all the zoom points up to maximum zoom?
Also, is there a way of having a feature's tags display in the View page when my mouse hovers over or clicks the feature I'm interested in?
Discussion
Comment from JohnSmith on 31 May 2010 at 21:27
OSM is about a database of map information, how that renders is another matter entirely.
Comment from amm on 31 May 2010 at 21:36
Hello and welcome to the project.
The fact that some place names (or other features) show up at some zoom levels but not others is a bit of an artefact from how the maps get rendered. On the main map style you see (called "mapnik") the rendering avoids overlapping names, as that would look ugly. Unfortunately the way it does that is by dropping one of the labels and which one gets dropped can depend on the zoom level. The other map style (called "osmarender") behaves differently in that respect. There isn't anything you can do about that at the stage of editing
However I'd like to point out the difference between the "data" and the "maps". The data (which is what you edit) tries to represent the world as detailed and accurate as possible from a neutral point of view. There is no concept of zoom levels in the data, just geographic position.
From this data it is then possible to generate all sorts of different maps such as the ones you see on the openstreetmap webpage. Everyone who creates a new mapstyle can then choose which aspects of the data are relevant to them and should be shown at which zoom level. Some nice examples of the various specialist maps created from openstreetmap data can be found at (osm.wiki/OSM_Online_Browsing)
But you can't just make webmaps. You can also use OSM on a GPS device like garmins or on the mobile phone, or for routing, or for even more crazy things like jewellery and clocks... (osm.wiki/Using_OpenStreetMap)
So OSM is really all about the variety of things you can do with free geodata, which is why it is important when editing the data to simply describe reality as accurately as possible, rather than having one particular application in mind (like the map you see on the main page).
For the second part of you question, you might be able to use the data overlay on the main page, or separate projects like http://www.openstreetbrowser.org/ or http://olm.openstreetmap.de/ that show a subset of the tags.
I hope that helped clarify things a bit
happy mapping!
Comment from imroy on 1 June 2010 at 03:56
See tagging for the renderer.