Bug in "other conversions"

[+pieter en ineke]

Whenever I click the "other conversions" link on any cache page I get to the Waypoint Conversions page. There I change the coordinates form "Degrees and Minutes (MinDec)", which is the default setting, to Geocode Address. This allways gives "Seattle, WA" as result. After this any conversion will result in zero coordinates. I have to close this page and reopen it to try other conversions.

I use Google Chrome version 40.0.2214.115m on a Windows 8.1 machine.

 

Pieter

[+ecanderson]

+1. All seems to go to Seattle here, too.

[+cheech gang]

Same here, Win 7, IE 11

[+dprovan]

I'm not an authority on this, but what do you expect to happen? I'm guessing the page is constructed assuming you just want to enter a geocode address. It doesn't really make sense to convert coordinates to a geocode address, which is what I assume you're expecting, since only a handful of coordinates map to one. I suppose it would make sense to pick the nearest geocode address, but, assuming that's even feasible, I can't see how it would be very useful and I do see that it could be very confusing.

[+pieter en ineke]

What I expect to happen is of minor importance. Somebody designed this function and had an intention with it and somebody programmed it. And I doubt that the way it works now is the way it was intended to work. However it cannot be meant to return zero coordinates when you switch to geocode address and back to coordinates.

[+dprovan]

What I expect to happen is of minor importance. Somebody designed this function and had an intention with it and somebody programmed it. And I doubt that the way it works now is the way it was intended to work. However it cannot be meant to return zero coordinates when you switch to geocode address and back to coordinates.

OK, let me try to explain again, then: you are seeing the interface as presenting a coordinate which you can convert to other formats by changing that field. But that's not what the page is actually doing. What the page is doing is letting you enter coordinates in a specified format, and then listing what that format is in the other formats. That isn't obvious because it automatically enters the first address for you when you jump to the page from a cache description.

 

It just so happens that for the other formats, after you change the format, it can convert the old format into the new format and then use that as the starting point for you to enter coordinates in the new format. When you change to a geocode address, it cannot do that (except for a very small number of exceptions), so instead it takes as the default the geocode address near GS headquarters.

 

You're right, I really didn't care what you expected to happen. What I was implying is that it would be unreasonable to expect it to do anything significantly different than it does because there's isn't anything more reasonable for it to do. But I'm prepared to be corrected, so if you would like to describe what you would consider the correct, intended behavior, I'll be enlightened.

[+pieter en ineke]

You're right, I really didn't care what you expected to happen. What I was implying is that it would be unreasonable to expect it to do anything significantly different than it does because there's isn't anything more reasonable for it to do. But I'm prepared to be corrected, so if you would like to describe what you would consider the correct, intended behavior, I'll be enlightened.

 

If an algorythm cannot do anything reasonable with the data offered then it should at least leave the data unchanged so to make the process reversible. And in the ideal case it could give an errormessage. But in the case we are discussing now the data is destroyed.

[+Chrysalides]

I agree with pieter en ineke - "Geocode address" seems broken and should not have nuked the original coordinates.

[+dprovan]

I'm sorry, I misunderstood the problem. I thought you were complaining because when you changed the field, it switched to seattle, wa, which had nothing to do with the original coordinates. For the reasons I've explained, that would be fine.

 

But when that point wasn't getting through, I went to try it to see what you were complaining about, and I see now that you're reporting a real bug because setting that field to geocode address simply doesn't work: once you change the selection to geocode address, no matter what you put in the next field, the results are always n0 w0, not anywhere near any geocode address, not even seattle, wa.

 

Furthermore, once you've done that, the page is kinda messed up, so telling the browser to go back does not simply return to the previous setting with the original coordinates. After playing around with back and refresh and stuff, I did manage to get the original coordinates and the original format back, but I honestly couldn't explain what combination of actions did the trick, so starting over would be simpler.

 

Anyway, sorry to argue with you. Yes, it's broken beyond belief. I've never really understood why anyone would need to convert a geocode address, anyway (except to solve a puzzle that depends on them), but at the moment, the page cannot even do that.

[+cheech gang]

I don't know what it is, but since it is free I want it.

[+pieter en ineke]

I'm sorry, I misunderstood the problem. I thought you were complaining because when you changed the field, it switched to seattle, wa, which had nothing to do with the original coordinates. For the reasons I've explained, that would be fine.

 

But when that point wasn't getting through, I went to try it to see what you were complaining about, and I see now that you're reporting a real bug because setting that field to geocode address simply doesn't work: once you change the selection to geocode address, no matter what you put in the next field, the results are always n0 w0, not anywhere near any geocode address, not even seattle, wa.

 

Furthermore, once you've done that, the page is kinda messed up, so telling the browser to go back does not simply return to the previous setting with the original coordinates. After playing around with back and refresh and stuff, I did manage to get the original coordinates and the original format back, but I honestly couldn't explain what combination of actions did the trick, so starting over would be simpler.

 

Anyway, sorry to argue with you. Yes, it's broken beyond belief. I've never really understood why anyone would need to convert a geocode address, anyway (except to solve a puzzle that depends on them), but at the moment, the page cannot even do that.

 

Apologees accepted, Dprovan. Now we only hope that somebody will fix it.