add an option not to show all existing values in the 'change value dialog'

[adjuva@…]

I am using JOSM successfully with OSM files with a size of 80 MB which contain thousands of different values in the name or ref tag.

First problem: When i try to add (or change) an new name tag (or ref tag) i use the 'change values?' dialogue. When i switch to the value text field JOSM calculates a list with all different name (or ref) values in the layer and in the tagging presets for auto completion, which a shown in a combo box. This calculation take more than 30 seconds on my computer. For all other operations in JOSM the performance of the computer is sufficient. A repeating waiting time of 30 Seconds is too long for effective work.

Second problem: I use the 'change values?' dialogue to look which values for a key are used by the selected elements. So i am only interested in the values in the combo list which are shown in bold an with a usage count in braces. To search for half a dozen bold entries in a list with thousands of non bold entries makes no fun.

Solution: I want to have an option that enforce that only values of the currently selected elements are show in the combo list of the 'change values?' dialogue and only this values should be used for auto completion of the value in this dialogue.

The option my be a check box (a name could be 'reduce completion list') in the 'change values?' dialogue. You activate this check box before you change with 'tab' or 'return' to the values combo box. You can selective activate this option when you change a key with many values.

An other option would be a parameter in the preference file.

I think also other mappers use the 'change value' dialogue to inspect the values of the selected elements and they would appreciate the possibility to eliminate the non bold entries in the values list.

[bilbo]

I think of alternate way of solving the problem, not requiring any options.

The drowdown will select only from used values, but there will be second dropdown, that will (when clicked) populate (populate on first click and retain the list until dialog is closed) and show a dropdown containing all possible values.

This way user can choose whether he wants to see only the used list or complete list, without need to use any options.