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Trip Planning Software for Linux?
imadcow1 asks: "I recently went on a trip that involved many destinations. I had to use Yahoo Driving Directions which was not efficient at all. Is there a trip planning program (open source or not) for Linux?"
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NetHack. ;>
Have everyone in the vehicle yell and scream about which direction to go and let the driver take the suggestions as he likes and where they end up is their destination.
Look where Linux is today!
I have a copy of the European Route 2000 from Route 66 and it runs pretty well under Crossover Office. It would probably also run well under generic WINE. I know it isn't Linux native software but the fact that it runs is something and I found it pretty decent when planning my trip to Austria a few years back.
Can't vouch for the current 2004 edition unfortunately but if they haven't made too many changes it should still work.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
"I recently went on a trip that involved many destinations. I had to use Yahoo Driving Directions which was not efficient at all. Is there a trip planning program (open source or not) for Linux?"
Obviously I need to hand in my geek registration card, since I'm don't see why a simple ink-and-paper road atlas won't work.
Lets review the advantages:
As long as you are traveling, why not pick up a road atlas? Just spend 5 minutes in advance to figure out your trip, right the directions down in large type so you can glance at them while driving, and record any landmarks before you need to make a road change (after Large City USA, I need to turn south on I3117). Then keep the most recent route change in your head while driving.
AAA Internet TripTik is very good and works in Firefox. I think you have to be a member of AAA, though. It allows multiple destinations, etc.
AAA website
In this comment I asked people to write to Delorme and request this, and to respond to this Journal Entry telling me they had done so. In the past I have contacted Delorme about this, and they keep telling me "Oh, we've never had any requests for this" - demonstrably false after my first request, so I wanted to have the evidence to point to in order to bring more pressure to bear upon Delorme.
And as I commented in this journal entry the result was a big, fat zero. There were no replies to my journal entry, and as far as I can tell, no replies to Delorme.
Now, what does this tell us? When a story like that hits the front page of Slashdot, and fails to engender enough support to even generate one response, then the only thing one can conclude is that there is not enough demand for this product to make it worth anybody's time to do. Hell, I do software design for a living - and were I working for Delorme I would not recommend spending any effort to do a port precisely for this reason. The opportunity cost is too high - even if the cost of a port is only a few man-weeks, the money you can make spending those man-weeks on improving the Windows product is FAR greater than the money you would make on the Linux port.
Furthermore, I would assert that a program like this is very difficult to do in a Free Software environment, due to the dependance upon a large, detailed, and accurate database. One lone hacker can create a vector map display widget, one lone hacker can create a route planning routine, but one lone hacker cannot create a detailed database of roads (including road type, speed limit, any one-way restrictions, etc.) attractions, exit services, hotels, etc. The only way I could see to do this would be to allow submissions by the public to a database, with some sort of reputation system and approval system (think Wikipedia. Or more realistically, think Slashdot. Do you really want your trip planning software trying to route to on 69 Goatse Rd. to the Portman Museum of Grits in Frist Prost, AR?)
I shall say it again: IF this is something that matters to you, write a polite letter to:
sales@delorme.com
or better still, write (on paper, with proper spelling) to
The head of Delorme's name is David Delorme, perhaps you could address your letters to "Sales Manager" and CC David Delorme.
And again, if you do so, please drop me a line as a response to this post.
www.eFax.com are spammers
The debian version is 0.16, but the sourceforge version is 0.11, and the version on the project's homepage is 0.6. The last debian version was uploaded in June of this year. The others were released in 2001, so I guess the debian version is the only one still being actively developed (or released anyway).
I don't have a lot of experience with this package. I've only tried it a couple times, but so far so good.
Frogs are primitive animals - so the occasional extra toe is not that unusual. But this is very unusual.
This "quest" for a Linux mapping solution reminded me of my own; I've recently been thinking about (rather procrastinating) over buying a Garmin IQUE 3600. In my reading and comp'ing of pdas with GPS/Mapping software, I looked at the Linux-OS-based Sharp Zaurus which gets a lot of (well earned) attention here.
i l.jsp?siteId=423.............
I was looking for more than the Zaurus was offering, but here's what I found and bookmarked. I'm sure others here using the Zaurus will be able to fill in the blanks and share other gps mapping OSS projects out there, if they exist, which I wasn't able to find, other than three below. Zaurus Users Group might have some info as well. Bill Kendrick is also a good resource about these.
SOFTWARE:
GPSGaugeLite
MFG: Serialio
http://www.serialio.com/products/GPSGaugeLite.htm
SOFTWARE:
qpeGPS
http://qpegps.sourceforge.net/
Screenshots | Tested GPS Units
SOFTWARE:
zGPS
http://www.handango.com/sharp/PlatformProductDeta
http://tinyurl.com/6lau7
HARDWARE:
Model Name: CF Card -GPS Navigation Receiver
Manufacturer: AmbiCom
http://myzaurus.com/acc_Comm10.asp
HARDWARE:
Serial GPS Receiver
Model Name:GPS-U2-Z9
Manufacturer:Serialio.com
http://myzaurus.com/acc_Serial10.asp
for all you lazy cats that keep flooding the front page with nonesense "WHERE DO I FIND X PIECE OF SOFTWARE?!?" it's called
google.com, www.freshmeat.net, and sourceforge.net. quit being lazy and find it yourself damnit~!
And for all you crotchety old coots who keep flooding stories with "WHY IS THIS ON SLASHDOT?!?" it's called community. These sorts of articles are one of the many types that make slashdot worth reading. A lot of people will have looked for Linux map/trip planning software years ago and given up, not finding any, or may not have even thought about it. Either way, this story will help them.
There are also a lot of Windows and Mac users who might have this image of Linux being an OS with like ten billion open source programs, all of them useless. This story might pique their interest.
Maybe there is no such program, or there is but it's a dilapidated project. This might bring attention to someone who both wants the program bad enough to help write it and is capable of doing so.
Anyway, these are a few reasons why these ask slashdot posts are worth having. Community is a good and useful thing. Maybe it's not for you?
...AAA, even though it's not a local host app as you're seeking.
Yes, you DO have to be a member of AAA.
Its benefit is NOT merely that it allows multiple intermediate waypoints:
it has the smoothest, most flexible, useful, time-saving UI I've seen for such apps, MUCH better than mapquest, mapblast, etc.
Borrow someone's ID and try it, especially the mouse-over and "modify trip" functions.
If you like it, maybe you can find a PC-based version of whatever they use.
Read the post title as Trepanning Software for Linux. Sounds more appropriate for the Mac.