Naming Standard for POI Files

Do you want to use NY or New York, PA or Pennsylvania? You get the picture.
What are you recommending?

I would prefer the postal code abbreviation.

I would prefer that the name of the POI (eg Target, Walmart, Starbucks) be the first word so that I do not need to rename the files after I download them.

If I understand David correctly he is talking about pois to a particular state.Like Florida attractions,Florida State Parks and etc for examples.David can chime in on this if not correct.

Same thing, though. To me anyway. Since there's limited space on the display on the GPS screen (relatively speaking), my preference would be "State Parks - Florida".

Either way OK with me. What ever the majority wants. Just so they don't over load the third field. That results in a cut off message or one that doesn't make sense. I do see where having the state first would be helpful when trying to find pois by state. They would all be together. When you sort the poi files alphabetically now you will find many with the state listed first . FL and CA for example.

My understanding is the discussion has to do with the file name rather than the contents. An example would be something like should a file containing locations in say Florida be Florida Cracker Barrels or Cracker Barrels FL.

If I understand David correctly, he is limiting his suggestion to files for particular states - let's say an attractions file, a toll booth file and a state park file.

Perhaps someone was going to visit a particular state and wanted to see what files were available. Having the POI file name start with the state would make it easy to find them.

When while planning our vacation, I can quickly scroll down past Alabama, Alberta and Alaska.
No offense.

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You can't always get what you want
but if you try sometime
you just might find
you get what you need

The subject first, then the State. Otherwise it'll be a long list of PA, and to find the name you'll have to scroll a long long list.

State first - then subject would be easier.

If AZ was first, then the 28 occurrences would be all together. Without state first, it is very tough to find them.

Now look at Arizona - most of them are first and easy to find.

It's not what you said. You said third field. There is NO THIRD FIELD in a file name.

You pulled out one extra comment I made in addition to that.Read all my posts."If I understand David correctly he is talking about pois to a particular state.Like Florida attractions,Florida State Parks and etc for examples.David can chime in on this if not correct".

For example, where is he looking for these files?

POI factory POI list?
Search function on POI Factory?
Mapsource or Basecamp?
POIs listed on his personal computer?
The POIs listed on his particular unit?

Depending on the answer to the above, anything posted thus far could be correct. Let's draw some guidelines here.

My vote would be to have the whole state name first.

Just the POI's that contain locations within a particular state, that people who are going on a trip can find easily. Touristy and travel POI's.

I don't care if it starts with the name of the state or the postal code. Although the postal code would be easier.

Since you can have separate names for what you see on here vs the actual file name, only the name you see here could be changed.

Places like Cracker Barrel, for example, that span multiple states, should start with "Cracker Barrel"

I can see a valid argument for both ways of naming things. On balance, I think that - for files that are limited to a specific state, - there is a little bit better argument for putting the name of the state first. (I would prefer using just the two-letter abbreviation rather than the entire name, as I think that would require less typing to do a search.)

Obviously, if a file is not limited to a specific state, there is little value in using the state names first, as it might actually make it harder to find a state by scrolling down a list if you cannot be certain that it is the first name in the list.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

Personally I see little benefit to state only files. Using' Rivopom's campground file as an example, the combined file, while quite large is still less than the individual states needed for an extended trip. It's not necessarily the number of bytes in an individual file as much as it would be the amount of space allocated to hold the file. A file with 40 locations would probably be allocated the same amount of memory as a file holding 200 or more. Once you stored 4 or 5 state files, you are probably approaching the amount of storage needed for the combined file.

The other argument I have regarding state only files is what do you do when your plans change? Let's say you planned a trip from NY to MO so you load the state files for those states your route goes through. Now, you decide you want to drop over to Kansas or Tennessee but they weren't in your original load. You either fly blind or find someplace where you can load the new files and then upload them to your GPS.

I do a lot of business travel and when I know I will rent a vehicle, I take a GPS. Because I may hit several locations on an extended trip, it makes sense for me to have as broad a coverage as possible. Your needs may be different but there are other factors that come into play besides "I'll never visit there."

How many people know what the zip code is in all the towns and cities in all of the states they plan on going through? Here is a similar example:

Years ago traveling back from Florida on I-95. This was way before personal media players were really affordable in cars. I'm listening to the radio. There's a tornado reported on the ground in blah-blah-blah county. I'm born and raised in New York. I believe I was in Virginia or North Carolina at the time. Where the hell is blah-blah-blah county anyway? Am I driving towards it? Away from it? How far from me is it? Am I in immediate danger?

Postal codes (like counties) have little value when looking at a map (or GPS screen) in my opinion. Likewise for file names, unless you're one of those guys that can memorize the phone book.

In general, I agree with you, especially if the only reason to limit the file to a given state were to have smaller file sizes. However, there may be files that were assembled by someone for only a specific state for some other reason.

For example, State Parks in West Virginia is something in which I am potentially interested for personal reasons. If such a file does not already exist (I have not looked yet) and I decided to create one, I would plan on uploading it here when done. I would have no interest in creating a State Parks file for Indiana, Louisiana, etc. and would almost certainly not create a POI file for all State Parks in all states.

From my viewpoint, the idea of a structured naming convention is to make it easier for someone else who might be interested in such a file to find that file. He/she might also be interested in a file for some of the other states, but unless there were a POI file that says that it includes all of the State Parks for all of the states, there would definitely be an advantage to including the state name in the file.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

Then

I start by commenting that it would be more desirable if every file submitted to the "factory" contained every location of the particular point of interest regardless of what state it was in. But, if that were required, we would likely get few files submitted because of the work involved.

However, that is not the case, and scanning through our nearly 6,000 POI files in the alphabetical list, it is easy to see that a great many are limited to specific states. Likely, the author had put in a lot of effort and wanted others to have the benefit of that effort but was not in a position to expand the state scope of file - although there are a few which cover contiguous states and many include locations near state borders.

These files exist and I suspect David is asking for a way to more easily find them.

Note there is a separate link to metro area projects (some 40 areas if you do not consider Hawaii which is a state)

There could be state projects as well but a naming convention (with the necessary cleanup effort to get it started) would do just as well.

I agree with this. However, they are there.

with standards, AGREEMENT.

...but I think he was saying you should use the postal code abbreviations, for example; OH instead of Ohio.

I already do that if the POI pertains to a state and I thought most of the guys did the same.

...Most, but not all.

Oh, the 2 digit state abbreviations. Makes 100% more sense now...