id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	resolution	keywords	cc
23612	Comments in the Overpass query wizard output	opk12	team	"The Overpass query wizard sometimes accepts a broken input, making a broken output with placeholder comments.

Comments are not good placeholders and the code that emits them should fail instead.

Examples:
1. `landuse` gives `nwr/*landuse*/;` (follow-up report from OSM Italy)
2. `key1=* $ key2=*` gives `nwr[""key1""]/*$*/[""key2""];`

Why emitting a comment is not OK:

* Multiple expert mappers thought `/**/` is a filter syntax.
  * I cannot blame a mapper enthusiast, with work and life and scarce brainpower left to remember the exact syntax.
* `/**/` is hardly noticed, if the query is long and complex. It does not stand out visually.
  * A loud comment `/*TODO FIXME landuse*/` would also not get attention in case of a typo in a simple query which would not otherwise deserve human review of the output.

I'd stress that the root issue that came out in the OSM Italy discussion is not just unrecognized broken syntax, it is the general approach of emitting comments instead of failing. For the symptom, that the query builder should either reject or support a key without `=*`, I'm opening a separate ticket.

I'm omitting the Status report, as this is not specific to a version / event."	defect	new	normal		Core			overpass query wizard comment