T-Map

T-Map is an interactive map of the Boston "T" subway for PalmOS-based palmtop computers (i.e., Pilot, PalmPilot, Palm, etc.).

Unlike other Pilot-based maps at the time I wrote it, T-Map is more than just a bitmap viewed in a generic image viewer; T-Map has a simple semantic representation of the map, and can plan routes for the user.

The user indicates starting and destination points by tapping them on the map. T-Map pops up textual directions for suggested routes, such as: "From Revere Beach, take Blue to Govt. Center, then Green (B, C, D) to Kenmore."

I hacked up T-Map in summer 1997, to learn Pilot programming and to have a useful tool when I moved to Boston. I developed T-Map on a simulator; it turned out to be two years before I actually saw it run on the real device.

You can download T-Map version 0.2 (07-Aug-1997). It should work on any PalmOS device, from the original Pilot, onwards. The uncompressed map image occupies 18KB; code and misc. data are squeezed into 7.5KB.

Because so many people have asked about adapting T-Map (to NYC, BART, Chicago, London, Paris, Munich, and Singapore, so far), you can also now download source (16-Jan-2002), which is licensed under the GPL. This is as-is and unsupported. It was really just a hack, and is not easily generalized to support other subways.