props distanceToLondon etc are crazy

[VladimirAlexiev]

@maxjakob has made the following atrocity in http://mappings.dbpedia.org/index.php?title=Mapping_en:Infobox_German_state&action=submit:

	{{PropertyMapping | templateProperty = belfast_distance_km | ontologyProperty = distanceToBelfast | unit = kilometre }}
	{{PropertyMapping | templateProperty = cardiff_distance_km | ontologyProperty = distanceToCardiff | unit = kilometre }}
	{{PropertyMapping | templateProperty = edinburgh_distance_km | ontologyProperty = distanceToEdinburgh | unit = kilometre }}
	{{PropertyMapping | templateProperty = london_distance_km | ontologyProperty = distanceToLondon | unit = kilometre }}
	{{PropertyMapping | templateProperty = douglas_distance_km | ontologyProperty = distanceToDouglas | unit = kilometre }}

Why is it an atrocity? Because creating properties that have a specific city in their name is just crazy. Instead we need a separate node that describes the distance between two constant cities: the current resource and the one named in the template property.

It was probably not his fault since the first commit says "copy of Infobox German State but state un-capitalized". Unfortunately the mapping framework is not modular, so any such mistake is copied many times over by different people.

distanceToBelfast is used 6 times. Searching for distanceto* returns 5 such flawed props that are used in 8 templates, but the list is not complete (the mapping wiki search is defective).

[phil294]

Shouldnt GeocoordinatesMapping be enough? Why add a new prop that is merely computed?

[VladimirAlexiev]

Maybe they state road distance not air distance, so cannot be computed.
But I agree such props are marginally useful, it's much better to ask a map/routing service.