Use short_name for features with undisplayable name field

[matkoniecz]

In some places name cannot be displayed as it would collide with icons or other labels. The typical technique on maps created manually it to use some shorter form of name.

It is not possible to easily find shorter form in an automatic way, but some objects have short_name tag. It is not highly popular (used over 20k times - http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/?key=short_name ), but it probably would change once it is really used.

Examples of where it would be useful:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=50.06491&mlon=19.92483#map=17/50.06491/19.92483

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/157902552#map=15/50.0672/19.9172

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/157902552#map=14/50.0656/19.9218

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/157902552#map=13/50.0631/19.9307

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/102365228#map=15/50.0972/19.9402 ( https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/50.0972/19.9477 )

[gravitystorm]

I believe that it's up to the renderer to fit the names in for 99% of the situations where the full name doesn't fit. While there's certainly a reason to have a 'short_name' tag - but only in a few special cases - if we were to use this tag without automatic shortening there would be all kind of tagging-for-the-renderer nonsense.

We can revisit the short_name tag, after we've implemented automatic shortening.

[matkoniecz]

I admit that I am sceptic about possibility to make automatic shortener that will be able to handle all kinds of data - but it would be a preferable solution.

[matthijsmelissen]

I would support rendering short_name. The current situation also risks tagging for the rendering, i.e. users adding the short name instead of the full name just to get it rendered. I think short names 'added for the renderer' would not really be a problem. I also agree that automatic shortening will be hard (especially across languages).

[pnorman]

👎 to using short_name without some kind of automatic shortening. I might be persuaded otherwise on some limited subset of features, but I wouldn't want to see it on roads as is.

[matthijsmelissen]

Perhaps we could use it on universities as a testcase? These have, at least in continental Europe, usually both a (very) long name and an abbreviation.

[matkoniecz]

IMHO it would be a good idea. Example (subset of example in initial ticket):

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/157902552#map=15/50.0672/19.9172 https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/157902552#map=14/50.0656/19.9218 https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/157902552#map=13/50.0631/19.9307

[vincentdephily]

One advantage of automatic shortening (beside the obvious benefit of not needing hand-tuned data) is that you can apply gradually stronger shortening depending on the need. One disadvantage is that it's likely to look weird if we try to abbreviate unknown words.

[matkoniecz]

Good example of case where automatic shortening is doomed to fail:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1517075
Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma -> UNINT

[VA00]

Examples of single-segment streets, where name is not rendered until zoom 17,18 because it is too long:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/172987394
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/172987396
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/172987388
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/172987398

Situation is quite typical in Poland, because of many long forenames and surnames, combined with short streets. Use of short_name for display is a good idea for them.