location=rooftop is deprecated, use location=roof instead

[dieterdreist]

I got a warning in JOSM location=rooftop is deprecated, use location=roof instead from JOSM. IMHO this is not a good idea, and I do not remember when this was decided. Location=rooftop is also documented in the wiki: ​https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:location

location=roof can mean on the roof (i.e. outside) or in the roof level (i.e. inside the building), while rooftop is very clear that it is on top of the roof.

Can you please remove this misleading warning?

[taylor.smock]

See r15372/#18153 for the change.

Specifically, ​osmwiki:Key:location specifies for rooftop (and has since 2018-03-27 (excluding usage percent), from one of your wiki ​edits):

• location=rooftop - possible synonym for roof (makes it clear it is on top of the roof). Only ~0.6% usage compared to roof.

The current definition of location=roof is

• location=roof - Used where a feature is located on the roof of a building.

At the time of your edit, the definition of location=roof was

• location=roof - Used where a feature is mounted on the roof of a building.

I will note that you also edited the location=roof definition ​last.

In either case, the definition of location=roof is that the feature is on the roof, which means it is on top of the roof -- I know of no case where on the roof would mean in the roof or under the roof.

This also means that location=rooftop is a direct synonym for location=roof, and given the ​current usage numbers, I'm disinclined to move the other direction, or even remove the deprecation warning for location=rooftop.

At this point, I would consider the definition of location=roof and location=rooftop to be stable, since they hasn't changed in almost 5 years. That means location=rooftop === location=roof based off of the established definitions.

I know that might not be what you meant when you made your edits to the wiki page, but I have to also consider what other people would have understood if they read the definitions.

[anonymous]

I don’t understand how a ticket that says rooftop is something different than roof can be closed with: but it has only 0.6% of uses

[taylor.smock]

Because what the ticket says does not match what the OSM wiki says (and as noted, has said for the past 5 years). See wiki:DevelopersGuide/DefaultPresets for a list of requirements for something to be added to JOSM's default preset list. Of note for this conversation, a new tag must have "proper documentation in the ​OSM-wiki". The issue here is that the documentation in the OSM wiki disagrees with the ticket description.

The documentation in the OSM wiki specifically states

• location=roof - Used where a feature is located on the roof of a building.
• location=rooftop - possible synonym for roof (makes it clear it is on top of the roof). Only ~0.6% usage compared to roof.

Looking at the definitions for the tags, location=roof is used for a feature located on the roof. location=rooftop is the same, with an additional note that it makes it clear it is on top of the roof. There is no functional difference between the definitions for the tags.

Wording is important. Again, as the wiki page has not changed significantly for those two tags in five years, I would consider any definition change of either one to be questionable.

This means, based off of the documented definitions that location=rooftop is a synonym for location=roof. Since location=rooftop should be mapped to location=roof by consumers, location=rooftop should just be replaced in the data.

In other words, the deciding factor wasn't location=rooftop only has 0.6% of uses, it was location=roof is equivalent to location=rooftop from a tag definition perspective.

Now, if you disagree with the way the wiki is worded, you can start a conversation to change it (or just change it yourself). Just note that I have a cooling off period for any changes to tag definitions in the wiki to give other people a chance to disagree. This can be skipped through discussions on the tagging mailing list.

For posterity, ​this is the state of the wiki page as of this post.

[dieterdreist]

Josm is telling me a tag is deprecated which is not what the wiki states anywhere. I believe rooftop is a better value than roof, when something is located on top of the roof, I do not question that many or most instances of “roof” are used to mean the same as rooftop, but having rooftop deprecated seems to be a JOSM decision, not documented in the wiki.