Searching using coordinates is useless as markers will be put with a large error margin

[piiskop]

Tonight, I participated on an adventure game. We knew ahead the coordinates of six control points. So I wanted to use my new toy Nextcloud Maps for that. As I was running already, it turned out that almost all of these six pair of coordinates showed up incorrect results. For instance: 59.39736,24.29106. The marker will be set to Merenuka in the forest near a road. Actually, that point is like half a kilometer South. I fulfilled with that information my story on setting up FOSS-directions where you can see screenshots, too.

[tacruc]

I guess the curtial infromation is that a search for 59.39736,24.29106 leads to marker at "lat":"59.4012388","lon":"24.2897721"

[piiskop]

Are you a developer or just somebody that guesses? Developers should know exactly what they do. I see that you've contributed something to this project, so you should know, not guess. What is curtial information anyway? /Maps/ should result correct locations not some /curtial stuff/ to be useful. *peacecop kalmer:* *Instituudi tee 3-27 * *76902 * *Harku * *Harku* *Harjumaa* Estonia *+372 652 4228 * *+372  5620 4556 * *__________________________________________________________________ *

…

On 09.07.20 22:58, Arne Hamann wrote: I guess the curtial infromation is that a search for |59.39736,24.29106| leads to marker at |"lat":"59.4012388","lon":"24.2897721"| — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#419 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADMQZEHFDRNZT6PNF2DOLFTR2YOQHANCNFSM4OV5NZOQ>.

[tacruc]

Are you a developer or just somebody that guesses?

Right now I'm just somebody that guesses. If this turns out to be a nice conversation, and it turns out that I understand whats your problem, It might be, that I'm the guy who uses his free time to fix you problem.

So right now I'm trying to understand what you want, without reading 4 pages about how to install stuff.

So in short you search for: 59.39736,24.29106
and the marker result is not as expected at 59.39736,24.29106, but "lat":"59.4012388","lon":"24.2897721"

Or did I miss anything?

[piiskop]

You're right - the marker's location is totally incorrect. Somebody else already explained that /Nextcloud Maps/ is looking for the closest named location. Why does one need a closest named location if that one knows the coordinates? If coordinates are given why not to show the exact location and if an address or a name is given then show the location for that name or if ambiguous, display a list with possible locations! I programmed a similar thing more than a decade ago for a weather application. One could just point a location on the map and the list with nearest locations would be displayed. Those locations were necessary for getting the weather data as that was connected to those named locations, not exact coordinates. /Nextcloud Maps/ doesn't display any information that's connected to named locations, so why doesn't a search with coordinates result with a marker on the exact location? If I put a marker using my pointing device then the marker will be set in the exact location, not a nearest named location. Isn't it a contradiction? If somebody gives you coordinates for a treasure then you want to go that exact location, right? Not to a location that's like a kilometer away. *peacecop kalmer:* *Instituudi tee 3-27 * *76902 * *Harku * *Harku* *Harjumaa* Estonia *+372 652 4228 * *+372  5620 4556 * *__________________________________________________________________ *

…

On 09.07.20 23:25, Arne Hamann wrote: Are you a developer or just somebody that guesses? Right now I'm just somebody that guesses. If this turns out to be a nice conversation, and it turns out that I understand whats your problem, It might be, that I'm the guy who uses his free time to fix you problem. So right now I'm trying to understand what you want, without reading 4 pages about how to install stuff. So in short you search for: |59.39736,24.29106| and the marker result is not as expected at |59.39736,24.29106|, but |"lat":"59.4012388","lon":"24.2897721"| Or did I miss anything? — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#419 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADMQZEG2B5T2USR6GH47AITR2YRU5ANCNFSM4OV5NZOQ>.

[piiskop]

As I'm kind of calmed down meanwhile, I gave myself a try to reread your response. You made a grammatical mistake with the word curtial that doesn't exist. So I understood that you meant curtail and that your guess was on the software. However, now I understand that you meant crutial and therefore your guess was on my report not the software.

Meanwhile a Nominatim specialist mtmail explained what Nominatim is for - it's for getting names as the name of the software is. So this issue is directly related to Nextcloud Maps.

[Spartachetto]

@tacruc given the specific behaviour of Nominatim, there are three possibilities, I think. The first one is to maintain the current behaviour; the second one is to select the exact coordinates if the user inputs them; the third one is to provide the user an option (something like "do you want to select the exact coordinates or the nearest named place?"). It is clear that you could choose to change the selected behaviour according to the input (something like "if there are enough decimal digits pick the exact location, otherwise ask"). This is something related to the preferred UI, as I know that in general Nextcloud prefers not to provide unnecessary options.... @jancborchardt could maybe provide some input on this issue.

@piiskop your aggressive behaviour risks to deter contributors to develop open source software, and is not tolerated in several communities (as mtmail already clearly explained in the linked issue of Nominatim). Could you please try to have a kinder and more constructive approach?