[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#14343) Data: Egyptian city list

["William Allen Simpson" <wsimpson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=14343 >

Benedict Adamson wrote:
> <URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=14343 >
> 
> OK, I think the idea of a separate file for city aliases, rather than my 
> suggestion, seems to have marginally more preference here, so I'll try 
> implementing that. Away for a week or so, so don't hold your breath.
> 
I'd like to weigh in for keeping city aliases in the nations files, or
for removing all cities into a unified city alias file.  Not both.

A decision needs to be made.

(1) Practical.  Too hard to maintain.  Most ancient cities have 2 or
more names, so adding a city means updating multiple files.  Keeping all
known information in the same file will help.  Humans are likely to
make inconsistent decisions (the current files are already inconsistent)
and it would be better to plan for the programming to resolve than
depending on massive editting by multiple people.

(2) Political.  You'll have all sorts of arguments about the "canonical"
name, the spellings, the best practices, historical precedence, etc.

(3) Effort.  The generic "translation" project (the usual example of
Londinium|London|Londres) requires the alias file to expand to cover
every known permutation of language for every city.  Do we need to
describe the parts of the city name so that translation is possible?
Many city names are composite, that are sometimes translated as they
are conquered, and sometimes just replaced.

Example: Byzant(thracian?), Byzantion (greek/phrygian), Byzantium (latin),
Konstandinoupolis (byzantine empire), Istanbul (turkish).

IMnsHO, the easiest thing to do is keep the files the same, expand the
syntax a little bit for gradual migration.

OTOH, a unified city file could have more than aliases.  It could move
all the land type (ocean, river, etc) and add a founding date and
importance/size indicator.  That would eliminate duplicate information,
and automate the sorting and selection and translation, all in one place.

This is only a game, and the city names aren't even the most important
part of playing the game.

-- 
William Allen Simpson
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