Hi Dennis,
vielen Dank für Deine Antwort. New translation for kludgy = kompliziert. Agreed.
I'd say there are three issues.
1. the "bug" in the handling of street names and numbers.
2. mapping data
3. multiple Hot Codes replacement files
To 1:
The handling of German street names/numbers is buggy. An address like Hauptstraße 25 returns "25" in the sublocation. This is better documented in the other thread (see link, above). As discussed in the other thread, the cause is unclear: Is PM interpreting the OSM data wrong? Or, is the OSM data model flawed? Can it come from the fact that German street numbers follow the name?
To 2:
Yes, I get your point about locals disagreeing. Alas, if OSM gets it's data only from users, then only a "post-geocode" workaround will help. After all, city boundaries are official designations, as is any official subsection (true for all countries, depending on their law). No Bonner would disagree with calling where I live Bonn, Bonn-Muffendorf or Muffendorf. All three are correct, even officially so.
Ideally, OSM would get such data from official sources, thus yielding consistent results. But, if they don't, there is no practical way (pre-geocoding) to align every location everywhere. A have another software tool for tracking my running data that also relies on OSM. For a long time, it reported our lovely Kottenforst as part of Königswinter. Check the map: Kottenforst is west of the Rhine and part of Bonn. Königswinter is east of the Rhine, and is its own city. They eventually corrected it.
Thus, IMHO, a user of PM who wants accuracy and consistency has to resort to post hoc corrections via something like Hot Codes.
To 3:
Quite apart from my needs, it would seem a worthwhile addition to PM to allow multiple Hot Code Replacement files for different variables. Suppose I wanted to replace sublocations, but I also while using your serial number solution for the photographers and for, say, some others variable, i.e. multiple, unrelated replacements. Unless, I am missing something, this doesn't seem possible.
I do hope that you'll look into 1 and 3.
Nevertheless, my case proves Hot Codes's usefulness and elegance. If I can build something as wild as this, and get good results, it speaks for the tool.
Cheers,
Jamie