support multiple values for a tag

[ktotam]

marking a way "natural=coastline;cliff" as per ​http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Cliff causes it to be shown not as a coastline anymore and produces an error for the remaining stretch of the coastline (not closed).

[bastiK]

This is a rather "progressive" way to tag a cliff coastline, but I guess you are aware of that.
Even if JOSM displayed it as you like, probably no other OSM related software would. Have you tested the Mapnik coastline tool? Why not start your semicolon tagging with less critical objects?

[ktotam]

well, i'm all for updating wiki with a description of a more traditional way of tagging a cliff coastline (what is it, btw?), and reclassifying this ticket as an enhancement rather than defect.
i just thought it strange that josm suggests semicolon-delimited values e.g. when merging objects, but does not really support it itself.

[bastiK]

Replying to ktotam:

well, i'm all for updating wiki with a description of a more traditional way of tagging a cliff coastline (what is it, btw?),

According to ​http://tagstat.telascience.org/tagdetails.php?tag=natural&limit=200&dir=DESC&order=total it is used 4 times (probably due to the note in the wiki).

I'd say this is one of the rare cases where you would draw 2 ways on top of each other. Wiki should be updated, maybe ping the tagging mailing list before.

and reclassifying this ticket as an enhancement rather than defect.
i just thought it strange that josm suggests semicolon-delimited values e.g. when merging objects, but does not really support it itself.

Then the real bug is the suggestion for merging...

[mjulius]

The suggestion of delimiting multiple values for a tag by a semicolon has been around for a long time. AFAIK no tool is supporting this except JOSM when joining or merging objects.

A relation could be used to attach the cliff to the coastline way.

[stoecker]

A final note: The semicolon method has not been introduced by JOSM, but JOSM (like merkaartor) supports it at certain places. But it never got accepted widely, so nobody bothered to really implement it fully. Currently it is supported by some tools (like JOSM) for certain tags only (like opening hours). Whether or not there will be better support for this in future? - Well, future will show :-)