NL:Glossary

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Deze pagina bevat een lijst van technical en algemene termen die worden gebruikt bij het OpenStreetMap project.

A

• API : Application Programming Interface - The OSM API provides high-level access to the OpenStreetMap database by allowing clients to request and edit objects from the database. It follows the REST approach to web service construction. A.K.A The OSM "Protocol"
• Area : In map rendering terms, an area is a shaded polygon representing for example a park or industrial area. There is no data primitive for an area. They are just represented as a way that closes in on itself (i.e. circular) and is tagged with tags that belong on areas.
• Applet : See Java Applet

D

• Database : The OSM "database" is where we keep our underlying map data. It's actually a MySQL installation running on Servers/db, but most application access it via the API
• Data Primitive : Lowest level simple concepts / objects represented in a database. In the OSM database we have "Nodes", "Segments", "Ways" and "Relations".

G

• GIS : Geographic information system (Wikipedia)
• GPS Receiver : Global Positioning System Receiver. Device used to record your position on the globe. We use them for recording a whole sequence tracks
• GPS Unit : Another name for a GPS Receiver
• GPX : GPS Exchange Format is an XML format used to represent data collected by GPS units. The OSM server accepts data in GPX format before processing it into the OSM data model.

J

• Java : Programming language which we use for some peripheral components: The JOSM editor, and the Osmosis framework.
• Java Applet : We used to have a Java applet as one of our main Editing interfaces. It was the precursor to the Potlatch, appearing on the 'edit' tab of the main map. Potlatch replaced the Java Applet, and further development has largely ceased. It doesn't have a name other than the Java Applet. Like Potlatch it is a simple online editor, which uploads your changes immediately. In general a "Java applet" is type of dynamic object which can be embedded on a web page. It is the Java equivalent of things like Adobe Flash objects.
• JOSM : The Java OpenStreetMap editor. It is a map viewing and editing tool written by Imi. It will run on most computers and allows a user to view, edit and upload data to the OpenStreetMap database.

K

• k="something" v="something else" see tags
• Key : The First Part of a tag, which groups similar Values.

L

• Layer : Is used to describe the relative height of map features, to separate different parts of style sheets, a way to show different things in JOSM, etc.

M

• Mapnik : Mapnik is a GIS library; a collection of code that does things like reprojecting and rendering geo-spatial data. Mapnik is used by OSM to generate tiles for the slippy map.
• Mapping : The process of gathering data for the OSM map. Typically done by foot, bicycle or car with a GPS receiver and noting down street names in parallel.

N

• NMEA : format used to represent data collected by GPS units
• Node : An object with an ID, a Latitude and a Longitude. Nodes can also have tags. See Data Primitives#Node and XML Schema#Node

O

• OGC : The Open Geospatial Consortium (http://www.opengeospatial.org/) is a non-profit standards body that defines standards for the use and storage of geospatial data.
• OSGeo : (https://www.osgeo.org/) An organisation that promotes the development and use of Open Source, community based Geospatial software.
• Open : We try to do everything in the spirit of openness. Our maps are "open" in that anyone can use them (licensing issues notwithstanding), anyone can see how they were created, anyone can participate in that process. In addition most of our software is Open Source, meaning that software developers can participate in developing the project in that way.
• Open Source : Software created in the spirit of openness, and with its source code open for downloading, modifying, and redistributing (for free) To avoid confusion, please don't refer to it as OS!
• Operating System : Software such as Linux, Mac OS X, Windows or Solaris for low level management of a computer system. Devices also have them. To avoid confusion, please don't refer to it as OS!
• Ordnance Survey - Mapping organisation in the UK, with extremely detailed maps collected and funded by the taxpayer... and then sold back to them at prohibitively expensive prices. To avoid confusion, please don't refer to it as OS!
• OS : Unfortunatly OS is an acronym for three different things which we might be talking about in this context : "Ordnance Survey", "Open Source", or "Operating System".
• OSM : OpenStreetMap. This whole project. See About
• .osm : The XML format that is produced by the OSM server. It is used for communication with the API and also for the weekly Planet dumps.
• Osmarender : The renderer used by the Tiles@home project, also the name of the tiles@home default layer because of this. see Osmarender on the wiki.

P

• Planet.osm : An osm format file that contains all of the nodes, segments, relations and ways that are stored in the OSM database.

• PostGIS : http://postgis.refractions.net/ An extension to the PostgreSQL database that allows it to store OGC Simple Feature Specifications compliant objects. PostGIS is used by OSM along with Mapnik to generate tiles for the Slippy Map.
• Potlatch : That supersedes the Java Applet for the editing the map online through the web site.

• Protocol : A.K.A. The "API".

R

• Ref : ?Used in Potlatch?
• Relation : Relations are a new kind of data primitive added more recently. They are basically groups of objects in which each object may take on a specific role. Relations may also have tags.
• REST : Web development paradigm which we adopt with our protocol interface (API) It means we make objects available at unique URLs, and follow standard use of HTTP protocol features.

• Ruby : A relatively new multipurpose programming language. We have a number of data manipulation scripts and libraries in Ruby. The protocol interface was originally written in pure ruby before being ported to Ruby on Rails...

• Ruby on Rails : Called "Rails" for short. A ruby framework for rapid data-driven web development. OSM core components were ported to ruby on rails...

• The Rails Port : OSM core components: The protocol interface (API) and the front end website components are often referred to as as "The Rails Port" because there was a large development effort to port these (change the code over) to Ruby on Rails. They were originally written in pure Ruby. The rails port runs on the Servers/www

S

• Scaleable Vector Graphics : see SVG below.
• Segment : Segments were originally a separate data primitive alongside Nodes and Ways. These were removed, to simplify the data model, with the introduction of protocol version 0.5. Since then, the word "Segment" is increasingly being used to mean, a straight section of a way between exactly two Nodes. This is similar to its previous meaning, but a segment manifests itself within node and way definitions rather than being an actual data primitive. To be clearer it may be better to refer to them as "way-segments".
• SiRFstar III : A GPS chipset by SiRF Technologies.
• Slippy map : The map you can see on the OSM Main Page
• SVG : Scaleable Vector Grapics. XML format for representing vector graphics. SVG maps can expoted using the export tab, or created by Osmarender.

T

• Tagging : Add tags to (key=value pairs) to Nodes and Ways.
• Tag : A tag is a key=value pair, a.k.a. "attributes", set on OpenStreetMap entities like Node, Way or Relation. Each tag consists of a key name and a value. This is sometimes simply written as key=value (e.g. highway=residential) or as k=key, v=value (k=highway v=residential) both ways of writing it mean the same thing. In editors like JOSM you don't have to put k= or = you just use the key field to enter the key name and the value field to enter the value. See XML Schema#The tags
• Tiles@home : A distributed rendering effort to render map tiles for the Osmarender layer of the slippy map. see Tiles@home
• Trace :
• Tracing : Creating traces with a GPS receiver. The result are NMEA files.
• Track :
• Tracklog :

V

• Value : The Second Part of a tag, which goes under a Key.

W

• Way : An ordered List of one or more Nodes. Ways get rendered as streets/railways/footpaths/canals etc according to the tag(s) indicating what type of way it is. Ways are contiguous and non-branching. (You can get from beginning to end by following segments of the way, without "jumping" or backtracing) See Data Primitives#Way and XML Schema#Way
• WGS84 : The ellipsoid that GPS is based upon. All geodata in OSM uses WGS84. This can be very different for geodata gathered from other sources. For example the Royal Observatory in Greenwich is at 0°0'0"E in the ellipsoid for OS maps, but at 0°0'5"W in WGS84.