@Steve: I found a comment in MDRFile.addStreet that tells me that the name including the shield is used for MDR7. I have changed that in the patch because I didn't understand why the shield is included. Can you check your comment and remember about your intention? ;-)
The index is an index of what is actually in the .img files. That includes the shield and all the other special characters. Therefore you need to sort on that.
If you were only removing the shield then it might still work, but the patch appears to be removing the reference too. I don't think that will work.
The history is that originally, before we had NET, roads could only have one name. Thus people started creating names that contained both the name and the ref. Its all very innovative, but in real Garmin maps road names are set in NET and there are up to four names. Usually the ref is first (if there is one), followed by the street name (again if there is one).
I'm not sure about under what circumstances the other names can be used, but I have noticed one case that is relevant to house numbers where you have a block of flats with its own name. So the address might be 1 Golden Towers, Long Lane, London, and the NET might include 'Golden Towers' and 'Long Lane' in the road names.
So when NET was added, we didn't revert to a proper split between road name and ref. That hasn't mattered until now...
So I see we now do this:
006243a7 | 43 23 03 | Label 0x032343: ^EA4019 TEWKESBURY ROAD 006243aa | 5a 23 03 | Label 0x03235a: TEWKESBURY ROAD (A4019) 006243ad | 35 22 83 | Label 0x032235: A4019
And it should really be
006243a7 | 43 23 03 | Label 0x032343: ^EA4019 006243aa | 5a 23 03 | Label 0x03235a: TEWKESBURY ROAD
..Steve
Ok, it think I tried to solve two things at once: - Fix assignement of housenumbers to street - better handling of refs and names I have removed changes to the MDR from the patch. The housenumber assignment now strips the shields from streetnames and all text within brackets. TEWKESBURY ROAD (A4019) => TEWKESBURY ROAD ^EA4019 TEWKESBURY ROAD => TEWKESBURY ROAD Of course this patch does not work if someone add the refs not within brackets. But at least it improves the handling for the default style. A compiled binary is available at: http://files.mkgmap.org.uk/detail/143 Improving the handling of names and refs as Steve described can (and should) be done later. WanMil