OpenStreetMap
I've been working on making some of the Kathmandu mapping better based on my local knowledge.
A few questions I wonder about:
- how to name things so that they show up in both English and Nepali? I want the Nepali name to be present and highlighted, but also the English name, as people using both languages want to use OSM.
- in Nepal, intersections are also the names used for entire neighborhoods. I have been labeling intersection nodes with names of these neighborhoods, but how do I make sure the name is rendered so its well displayed on the map? I found one intersection/neighborhood (Chabahil) labeled as place=town. Is this appropriate?
Discussion
Comment from chillly on %დ %თ %წ at %ს:%წ
When you say "displayed on the map", I expect you mean the Mapnik map on the OSM website. This is just one example of a map derived from OSM data. You can render your own map with different rules so multiple language names appear. There are an increasing number of renderers available, see osm.wiki/Renderer for more details.
If you want parts of a city to have district names the convention seems to be to use place=suburb + name=*, even though this is not what a suburb really is. I would consider adding a node with these tags right next to the crossroads.
Comment from z-dude on %დ %თ %წ at %ს:%წ
There's a few variations of the name tag
osm.wiki/Name
name=Irgendwas (the default name, used locally)
name:en=Something (the name in English)
In addition to place=suburb there is also place=locality
osm.wiki/Place
Comment from chillly on %დ %თ %წ at %ს:%წ
place=locality is not intended for use in a city. Locality is intended as a place that is named but has no population - not likely in a city.
Comment from z-dude on %დ %თ %წ at %ს:%წ
There is no restriction on placing localities within cities.
osm.wiki/Tag:place%3Dlocality
Places like Times Square, or Picadilly Circus are intersections just like the places that Prabhasp described.
Comment from prabhasp on %დ %თ %წ at %ს:%წ
Thank you both for your comments. I will explore the place=suburb and place=locality options, and figure out which one is best. Although OSM says "don't tag for the renderer," in a case like Nepal's where we have to advocate for wider use of OSM[.org, and the Mapnik renderer is default so thats what most will use...] as well as built the map itself, I find myself really torn.
Some of the "towns" here, for example, are labeled with
name=Lalitpur ललितपुर
instead of
name=ललिरपुर
name:en=Lalitpur
etc., and I'm sure its for the [Mapnik] renderer. The renderer shows the place name in both English and Nepali, and it looks beautiful. I think this might be something for the default renderers to think about--how to help maps in non-English spoken places with large tourist populations to be most useful.
Comment from Zartbitter on %დ %თ %წ at %ს:%წ
if you really want to use something like
name=Lalitpur ललितपुर
then please add these language tags, too:
name:en=Lalitpur
name:ne=ललितपुर
Comment from prabhasp on %დ %თ %წ at %ს:%წ
@Zartbitter: I'm not sure what I want to use; I was commenting on what is already is use.
Comment from Damouns on %დ %თ %წ at %ს:%წ
You can see this map with name:en= values (and name= if not available) and this one with name:ne= values (and name= if not available).