Relations are not always easily distinguishable

[NE2]

If you have several relations for different parts of a route, like those on ​http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_relations (some routes are split by state or direction), there's no way to distinguish them in the relation list on the right if you use the tags such that they apply to the underlying elements (so ref is just 95 or I 95 and name is either blank or a name like "Delaware Turnpike").

This specific case would be solved by including addr:state and direction tags if present, but there are many other possible situations where this could cause a problem. I suggest supporting a new relation_name tag that would give each relation a unique name like "Interstate 95 in Delaware (northbound)".

[stoecker]

Hmm, JOSM bug tracker is not really to right forum to introduce new tags. If the tag is used in database, then JOSM will support it.

[rickmastfan67]

You know, I think the easy way to do what NE2 is asking is to combine parts of the relation to display them on the right hand side of the screen. For instance, if a relation doesn't have a name tag, but does have the "description" tag, display the "description" name instead of the "ref" tag. It could go a long way in what NE2 is suggesting without adding a brand new tag.

Here's an example:
For instance, relation 396362 is for I-95 in Delaware. As of right now, when you load the relation in JOSM, in the relation menu, it just shows it as "95", which is the "ref" tag. If you had other I-95 relations loaded, you would have to check each one to figure out which one you wanted to edit. But, it has a "description" tag with "I 95 (DE)" in it. If you could show the "description" tag on the right in the relations area instead of the "ref" tag (unless a "name" tag is present), this could be solved right away. Plus the "description" tag is an official tag. ;)

[alv]

JOSM seems to display the contents of note=* in the relation list; at the moment 55 900 relations have a note=*, whereas 13 500 carry a description=*. This usage of note=* is a bit different from note=* used on ways and nodes. I'm inclined to believe mappers have used it on relations because it makes editing easier, when description=* would be more in line with the other uses of these tags outside of relations. It would be best if JOSM were to use the description=* before a note=*.

[jttt]

As a workaround, you can use http://josm.openstreetmap.de/wiki/NameTemplate to display relations or other primitives in way that suits you.

[alv]

Found out that, locally, to use it one only needs to set the advanced preference relation.nameOrder to the array copied from the source code, with "description" added at the suitable row. Simply adding "description", to gui/DefaultNameFormatter.java line 86 (don't have dev environment set up atm) would do the same for all who haven't yet set a custom relation.nameOrder. But first I might have to initiate a mailing list discussion about note=* and description=* on relations, now that I've pondered the issue for some time.