New cityrail service

lubos · Beginner Joined: May 24, 2008 Last Visited: Jun 5, 2008

I don't know how much use can have this service for others but still - let me know what you think...

www.mycityrail.info

What is it?
The website simply answers the question when is the next train due, just like tv monitors do that on most cityrail stations. It's really easy to use, just go on that website and click on your station. that's it.

I did it in my spare time, so don't expect anything huge but still this could be useful for some.[/url]

Raichase · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 6:25 am

Oooh, this is most interesting! Thanks for sharing it Very Happy

- Raichase.
My Flickr! and Website - Trackside

Comments made are not my own and may be complete rubbish.

Crazy-D · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 9:44 am

Very nice, thats pretty impressive!

[Edit] - If we spot bugs would you like us to let you know?

lubos · Beginner Joined: May 24, 2008 Last Visited: Jun 5, 2008

Thank you for nice feedback

Yes, please let me know about anything that's on your mind including bugs...

this is still kind of early beta version and I have still many open issues that I'm working on.

albert3801 · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 11:09 am

The main problem is that it's displaying trains as they appear in the public timetables and it's not concatenating different public timetables.

For example the next train from Werrington is shown as going to Chatswood (only) when in reality it's going to Berowra. Similarly the next train from Artarmon is shown as going to Parramatta when in reality it's going to Penrith.

It would be good if the program could join different public timetables.

Also - perhaps alter the fonts to look more like Cityrail displays?

Great little utility... I'm sure it will develop greatly.

Albert
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http://www.givemetruth.net/saved

lubos · Beginner Joined: May 24, 2008 Last Visited: Jun 5, 2008

hi albert3801,

thanks for feedback. I know, some services are shown double or even triple. I have to implement train merging feature where the parser would recognize this and display it correctly. that's a major issue now and has top priority on my list.

also I would love to use exact (or similar) fonts that cityrail is using once I figure out what are their names.

Crazy-D · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 11:30 am

Some things from me... Smile

Stations with very infrequent services (1 per day I guess) display the first service fine, then the next one is at a negative time. For example Aberdeen.

Maybe you can add some sort of detection for how many stations the run has and if only a few have no scrolling. For example some runs only have 1-5 stations left on their run but still have the vertical marquee going whilst in real life it's just static.

Lastly, wild idea but for the train type (all stops, limited stops, express). Maybe you could make some sort of comparison to how many stops the train has to it's destination compared to how many stations there actually are for that line. Unless of course you have already thought of something. Razz

lubos · Beginner Joined: May 24, 2008 Last Visited: Jun 5, 2008

Crazy-D, thanks for comments. negative values will be fixed, also I will have to display more flexible timer because 563 minutes is not useful either. when it gets over 99 minutes, I'll just show hours&minutes and then perhaps days&hours.

All stops, Limited stops, Express tags will be implemented. It can be done, but that's kind of lower priority I think. but now that I see it's requested, I might do something about that sooner.

vertical marquee should be enabled later only for services that can't fit into the box. I agree with that.

Boss · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 12:12 pm

belfordrocks · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 1:44 pm

10/10.

Sign my petition to BRING BACK JARROD SAMMUT to first grade for the Panthers

TheLoadedDog · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 2:30 pm

As the resident Red Symons here, I hate it when I have to be nice to beginners....

lubos, that is effing awesome.

Humphrey! We're leaving!

Crazy-D · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 5:02 pm

Might I also suggest adding a few blank lines for the vertical marquees as the first stop sometimes second is hidden already when the page loads.

I'm still liking it... you are probably going to have alot of hits from me. Razz

callufrax · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 5:57 pm

Great job, Lubos! Very, very useful!

Railways.CC

red7489 · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 6:10 pm

Pretty good to me. Keep up the good work.

Inspector · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 8:21 pm

Excellent! Keep it up! Smile

Special delivery - a berm........a BERM??!!!?

OLE (Order of Lithgovian Empire), Lithgovian New Years' Honours, 2008.