[maemo-users] Idea: Route Finder Service

[From: Lars Persson Fink]

Hi,

I (like most others) saw the news of the N810, with built in GPS.
Someone suggested that the maemo community could work for more location
aware applications, that got me thinking about the idea of the Route
Finder Service. 

Unfortunately I do not have the time or competence needed in order to
actually implement this, so I am posting it in the hope that someone
else may do it.

I believe it would be nice to have a service that other applications can
ask for routes, not IP-routes but routes between locations. This service
could then utilize other route providing services (GPS, google, MS
virtual earth, local subway webpage etc) to find the actual routes.

I think it would be useful if the service provided some "plugin"
functionality, preferably through some scripting language, so it would
be easy to extend it towards different route providing services. For
instance I believe most Subways have a web-page that you can ask to get
information about trips, but they are all different, so the service
would have to be adapted.

Some examples:
1. If I select an address in my address book I could ask the application
to give me directions on how to go there.

2. My calendar could check the location of my next appointment and get
my current location from the GPS to send off an alarm a couple of
minutes before I need to leave, based on the Route Finder service
estimation of the travel time.

Best Regards,
Lars Persson Fink