A better schedule getter
Inspired by Nathan’s self-motivated improvement to the Port Authority’s Trip Planner, I decided to task myself with my own small project that would eliminate the need to visit the Byzantine structure that is the Port Authority website. I hope you like it.
Whoops, wrong project.
Actually, my goals were much more modest. As one who is not altogether trusting of the times given via the online scheduling tools, I prefer to rely on the paper, or “hand schedules,” that the Port Authority distributes.
However, carrying more than three paper schedules at a time leaves one open to the valid assumption by others that you are a nut who hordes bus schedules like Elliot Spitzer hordes prostitutes. Believe me, I’ve seen the type in every city we’ve been to.
So I prefer to do my hoarding electronically, via PDF. Since my laptop is never far from my person, it’s an ideal situation. Throw Spotlight into the mix, and I can summon up any bus schedule at will, and can out-crazy the best of the crazies.
Well, almost. See, the process of getting the schedules and keeping them updated is the not fun part. There are about 11 bus routes that I use with varying degrees of regularity, and I despise having to remember if I grabbed the newest schedule and, if I didn’t, visiting the Port Authority’s website to get a new one. Too much thinking and too many clicks.
Enter the Mac, its Unix underpinnings, and the beauty that is shell scripting.
I spent some time tonight polishing a project I had started a couple of months ago – a command-line schedule retriever. It uses wget and a lot of pipes and output redirection to download and manage the latest Port Authority schedules. It’s not pretty (although it does have a cool ASCII progress bar), but if you are a CLI ninja, it beats the alternative.
However, if you didn’t understand that last paragraph, it’s probably not for you.
My experience with releasing software that doesn’t run within a web browser is somewhat limited, so your mileage may vary, but I welcome you to download it and give it a shot.
Update: Also see the simplified Port Authority Hand Schedule retriever for quick access to PDF schedules through your browser.
