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MBTA the Bus manual p. 1 c 1994 by Peter Neuendorffer Table of Contents Forward 2 Installation 3 Getting Directions 4 Bus Information and Options 9 General Questions 13 Technical Notes 15 To Pay for this PROGRAM: Send $20.00 to Peter Neuendorffer 1399 Commonwealth Ave #11 Allston, MA 02134 Telephone 617-254-2213 Two disks will now be sent including a T trivia game. The database to change routes now becomes part of the main program. Here is a list of enhancements in Version 12 to 12.5: ***1. Bus route schedules are included. Select Bus from the main menu, enter in a bus number, then press Enter again to get the schedules. ***2. Useful telephone numbers are available off the main menu. ***3. You may get information on the current stop in the Where Starting or Where going boxes by pressing F2 4. by typing from DOS MBTA from place to another-place you get directions, and the program finishes. ex: c:>mbta from harvard to copley c:>mbta from newton corner to fitchburg 5. in the mbta setup program MBTASET you may set the mouse sensitivity from 1 to 4, where 4 is the fastest. 6. the MBTABASE.EXE program allows you to edit points of interest and bus routes. A small manual is included (mbtabase.man) 7. several improvements in the best-route information. Important! Save your original copy of the files intact in case you make inadvertant changes in the data with the mbtabase program. 8. Commuter choice from the main menu allows you to choose from a list of commuter rail routes. 10. You may print your directions (if any) by pressing Alt-P key combination. MBTA the Bus manual p. 2 FORWARD MBTA the BUS is software for IBM and compatible personal computers. (PC, XT, AT, PS-2, 386 etc.) You need 640K RAM of memory. A color monitor is optional, and the Mouse is optional (Serial required). MBTA the Bus must be installed on your hard drive, requiring 104K of disk space. MBTA the Bus gives directions on the Boston Area T public transportation system, including bus routes, commuter rail, and subways. It accepts about 500 bus and subway stops as well as 250 points of interest. It was created using the Pascal language of Turbo Pascal 5.0, a product of Borland International, Scotts Valley, CA. To get directions in the main program, you type in where you are starting - <copley> for example - and press the Enter key. You then type in where you are going- <Inman Square> for example, and press the Enter key. You then see the words "Searching" in the lower part of the screen. When your route is found, it is displayed at the main window of the screen. The subway portion of your route is displayed on the map at the right in dots (blinking on a color system). If for some reason your route is not found, a bright white box will appear saying "Route Not Found". As soon as you press a key, this box will go away, or after 10 seconds go bye. The menus in MBTA the bus offer information about buses, and listings of the stops so you can select starting and destination places without typing at the keyboard. MBTA the Bus is designed so that if you have a Serial mouse installed, you never need to use the keyboard to find routes. To get to the main menu, type Alt-M (the Alt key held down along with the "M" key). If you have any questions about MBTA, please feel free to phone 617-789-4516, 7PM to 10PM EST, and ask for Peter Neuendorffer. This program is currently unreleased. The enclosed copy of MBTA the Bus is licensed for your demonstration use only. This manual is in five parts: Installation. Getting Directions. Bus Information and Options. General Questions. Techical Notes. MBTA the Bus manual p. 3 INSTALLATION Installation is straightforward. -------------------------------- Copy the files: Move to your hard drive. Make a subdirectory Move to the hard drive and subdirectory. Insert program disk in floppy drive. Copy all files on program disk to the new hard drive subdirectory. :::::::>Note: Always run the program MBTA from within this directory. Example: <c:> <Enter> <cd\> <Enter> <md mbta> <Enter> <cd mbta> <Enter> <copy a:\*.*> -------------------------------- Now run the program MBTASET Example <mbtaset> <enter> Type Y for yes, N for no to the questions: Are you using a color monitor? Are you using a serial mouse? Do you want to enter place to call "here". If you answered Yes to last question, then type in a subway or bus stop you with MBTA to call "here". This is optional. About this manual: The following conventions are used. To indicate what you type at the keyboard, words or letters are enclosed in brackets, like so: <copley> <Enter> means to type the word copley and then to press the Enter key. Up-arrow, and Dn-arrow refer to the arrow keys on your key- board. They are at the bottom inbetween the numberkeypad and the letters on an AT style keyboard. PgUp, and PgDn refer to the PgUp and PgDn keys. Esc means the Escape key. Enter means the Enter key. Right mouse click, Left mouse click means to push the right or left mouse button respectively and release them. When a word is in quotations, it means a menu item as you see it on the screen; for Example: "Metro". Quotes are also used to talk about screen messages; for example "Your Route not Found". The ::::::::> sign means a point to especially note. MBTA the Bus manual p. 4 GETTING DIRECTIONS There are two ways to get directions in MBTA the Bus. Typing in where you are starting, and enter; then typing where you are going, and enter. Example: <copley> <Enter> <dudley square> <Enter> The second way is to use the menu system, to wit, the Metro option. That way you can choose where you are starting and where you are going without typing in the name. You can use either the arrow and PgUp PgDn keys to do this, or you may use the mouse. Getting to the Main Menu is done by typing <Alt-M> or Left-Click the Mouse. --------------------------------------------------------- MBTA the Bus manual p. 5 getting directions, continued. MBTA the Bus recognizes all subway stop names, as well as key bus route stops for 100 bus routes. It also recognizes commuter rail stop names. The program will find the directions. All you have to do is give it the name of your start point and where you are going. Many stops do not need a city name. ::::> In fact, you should not ask for, say <dudley square roxbury>. <dudley square> will do. If you wanted <acton> you could use that, of course. ::::> MBTA the Bus does not care whether you type capital or lowercase letters; it is therefore "not case sensitive". Under the Questions and Answers and Bus information and options portions of this manual, you may find out how to tailor your request. These sections will also explain why certain routes are "Not Found". ----------------------------------------------------------------- To get to the main menu in MBTA the bus, you type <Alt-M>. This means to hold down the key marked Alt and then also press the M letter key. To end Mbta the Bus, you can press the <F6> key. ---------------------------------------------------------------- MBTA the Bus manual p. 6 getting directions continued. Using the Menus in MBTA can be fun. Get to the main menu by typing <Alt-M> or Left-Click the mouse. A menu should pop on the left hand top of the screen. "Metro" "Go" "Reverse" "Options" "Bus Info" "Place" "Subway" "Help" "Quit" When you have "Where starting:" and "Where going" filled in, you can get your route by moving the Up or Dn arrow keys to "Metro" and hitting <Enter>. Or you may simply type the first letter of the menu item you desire. This 'first letter' bit works for this menu and any second level menu in the program. When you are done with this menu, you can 'pop it off' by pressing <Esc>, or Right-Click the mouse. The Left-Click on the mouse, in fact is always a substitute for <Enter>, and the Right-Click on the mouse is always a substitute for <Esc>. MBTA the Bus manual p. 7 getting directions continued. ::::::::> Now back to the using the Main Menu to get directions: After Selecting Metro: <M>, you will now get another menu ontop of the last. Remember, any time you want to go back, press the <Esc> key. This menu offers you "Boston" "North" "West" and "South". Try selecting "Boston", <B> . Now you have yet another menu, offering you parts of Boston, "Allston-Brighton" "Central"...etc. Central refers the part of Boston near Park Street station. You select again, and you get all the stops in that district. By using the PgDn and PgUp keys, or Selection "-up-" or "-down-" menu items on this 4th menu, you can page through the stops. Select the stop you want, press <Enter>, and Voila! The stop name is fed down in to the highlighted bar below, just as if you had typed it in the first place. Which brings us to the crucial thing. :::::::::> When using Metro to select stop names, make sure "Where starting" or "Where going" is highlighted. You can use the Up or Dwn arrow, or push the mouse away or towards you to select the one you wish. This is important, because the highlighted bar will be the one that Metro feeds to when you select a stop. :::::::::> So to summarize, to get directions: ------> Highlight "Where starting:" bar, using the Up and Dn arrow keys. ------> Then get to Main Menu with <Alt-M> or Left-Click. ------> Select "Metro" ------> Select "Boston" or "North" or "West" or "South" ------> Select the City on the next menu. ------> Select the stop with Pg-up, Pg-Dn, "-up-" "-down-" and arrow keys. ------> Press <Enter> when the stop is highlighted. ------> Highlight "Where going:" bar and repeat the process. ------> Go back to main menu <Alt-M> ------> Select "Go" <Enter> Your directions should appear. If they don't, your route may involve a 'daytime' bus. More on this under Bus Information and Options secion below. MBTA the Bus manual p. 8 getting directions contined. There are three other ways to select stops from the menus. That's the "Subway" option in the Main Menu; The "Points" option in the second menu (the one you get to by selecting "Metro"); and, lastly, the "All" option, also at the second menu. ----------------------------------------------------------------- By selecting "Subway", you can choose among the various subway lines, and page through a list of the stops on that :::::::::> subway line. Now's a good time to point out, that the stop names are in alphabetical order always off of metro, excepting the Subway option, where the stops are in order by the way they are on the subway line itself. By selecting "Points" you may see various (252 of them) points of interest in the Boston area listed. You can click or select on any of these just like the stops in the geographic listings described above. When you move the Up and Dn Arrow keys through this list, a description of the point appears above. By selecting "All" you can page through a list of all the stops that MBTA the Bus recognizes. This is useful if you know the name, but not where it is geograpchically. It functions just like the other stop selection options described above. ----------------------------------------------------------------- That's how you do it. Either type in "Where starting", and "Where going" and press enter, or select your route from the menus. :::::::::> The "Reverse" option allows you to get the route going the other way. Note the names are even switched at the bottom of the screen as well. MBTA the Bus manual p. 9 BUS INFORMATION AND OPTIONS This sections will talk about some services that MBTA the Bus offers besides giving directions. Then a discussion about Options you may use to tailor your route request. :::::::::> Before proceeding, one note on a stop selection not mentioned already. When you installed MBTA the Bus originally, you may have entered a "stop to call here". If you did, when you select the Main Menu "Metro" option, the second menu will have a "Here" option. Selecting this option feeds the 'here' stop name back to the command line below. Thus if you had specified <park street> when installing MBTA with the mbtaset.exe program, "here" would always refer to park street station. You can rerun mbtaset at any time from DOS without ill effect. Just run it from the MBTA sub directory. -------------------------------------------------------------- From the Main Menu: "Bus Info" allows you to find out information about a particular route. Selecting this option brings up a prompt in the box to the right of the screen where the map usually is. You type in a Bus Route No. Example: <10><Enter> Then you should get information about the Bus Route number 10, including last Saturday bus time, last Sunday Bus time (if any) and whether the Bus runs on Saturdays, Sundays, Holidays. Also the time in minutes between bus runs. Bear in mind that this information is averaged from the MBTA bus information on this route. Also, you will see the stops on this line listed in geographical order. :::::::::> After a call to the "Bus Info" service, you now do NOT have to press a key to resume. You could type in your new route, or go to another menu at any time. -------------------------------------------------------------- "Place" allows you to find out about a partular stop, namely what routes go from that place. Example: Select the Main Menu <Alt-M> Select "Place" <P> Type in a stop name <allston> MBTA the Bus manual p. 10 bus information and options continued. With both the "Bus Info" and "Place" options, MBTA uses fuzzy logic to supply default values. If you had the "Where starting" highlighted, and a route had been found, the Bus number of the starting part of the route would be supplied. Thus, you could select this bus number by Left-Clicking the mouse, without typing in a route number. As well, the "Place" option would have the name supplied that is in the highlighted bar, "where starting:" or "where going". A Left Click would obtain information on this stop. -------------------------------------------------------------- MBTA the Bus manual p. 11 bus information and options continued. :::::::::::> When your route is not found, it may be because of options that are set restricting MBTA the Bus's selection process. From the Main Menu <Alt-M>, if you select the Options Menu <O> , you are given a choice of what I call 'filters' on your route. By setting these various filters in the Options Menu, you effect what kind of stops and routes MBTA the Bus will be looking for in obtaining your directions. The more filters, the pickier MBTA the Bus (and you) become as to what routes are ok to use. The four filters found in the "Options" menu are: "Clear All" "Time of Day" "Wait Mins." "Ignore It" "Rail" These filters restrict the route MBTA can find. What do I mean by a 'filter'that restricts? An example of a restriction in everyday life might be the child who has $50.00 in their pocket earned mowing lawns. However Dad has put the restriction that they can't spend more than $2.00 on comic books. So when they go to the store, they cannot buy much in the way of comic books. MBTA the bus, can be restricted, to better effect, as well. With the "Time of Day" filter set to Evening, it will be unable to use any route that stops running after 7 PM. MBTA the Bus manual p. 12 bus information and options continued. ::::::::::::> From the "Options" menu, "Clear All" resets all filters to off, and sets "Time of Day" to "Evening". Each time you select "Time of Day" by pressing <T> in the options menu, or highlighting the words "time of day" with the mouse or arrow keys and pressing Enter or Left-Click, you toggle on and off the words "Day" or "Evening" in the box to the right. When set to "Evening" you are saying that you are travelling after 7 PM. Thus the route must take this into account. "Day" means you are traveling before 7PM and thus all bus routes are fair game. "Wait Mins." is also a toggle. By selecting it, you will see the words "Short Wait" in the small box to the right. When these words are seen, it means you are requesting that MBTA the Bus only look at bus routes that run every 20 minutes or less. If the toggle is off, and there is not the words "Short Wait" than any bus waiting time is ok for you, and for the MBTA driver. [joke] "Ignore It" allows you to give a Bus Route Number that you do NOT want to take. Thus Selecting "Ignore It" from the Options menu, and typing in <10><Enter> sets a filter on Bus No. 10. Any directions from then on will NOT involve bus 10. Make sure you don't leave this on by mistake. :::::::::::::> Typing the letter <s> in the "Ignore It" option means to "ignore subway". Thus two bus routes will be found, but not subway routes. MBTA the Bus will not find a route involving three bus trips together. "Rail" allows you to tell MBTA the Bus to ignore all commuter rail routes. :::::::::::::> The most 'open' filter is certainly to select "Clear All" and the set "Time of Day" to Day. This means, find all bus routes, ignoring none, with any waiting time, that run in the daytime. And that subway routes are ok as well. =============================================================== =============================================================== MBTA the Bus manual p. 13 GENERAL QUESTIONS ::::::> What do I do with this? ---------------------------------------------------------------- You get directions by running <MBTA> program. You type where you are starting, a place, not an address. They hit the Enter key. Then type where you are going, and Enter. So if you entered in: Harvard And then: Airport This software gives you directions from Harvard to the airport. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ::::::> How do I install this on my computer? 1, Copy all the files on your demonstration disk to a subdirectory on your hard drive. 2, Change to this directory and run MBTASET, answering several easy questions. 3, Run <MBTA> from there on. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ::::::> What if I don't know my way around? Select the Main Menu with the <Alt-M> key combo. Then Select "Metro" or Left-Click the mouse. Select an Area, and the a City and choose a stop from the list. ------------------------------------------------------------- ::::::> How do I get out of the menus? Just press Escape until the menus are all off, or Click on the Right Mouse button. ----------------------------------------------------------- ::::::> What do I do if it says "End Program?" Just press Escape key to continue, or Enter key to End the program. When you press Escape one too many times, this box will appear by design. ------------------------------------------------------- ::::::> I notice one data file is gigantic:over 400k. Can I do without this to save space? Yes. This is the bus time tables schedule. You may safely remove the files Newyork.drv AND the file Kinko.drv to save disk space. But then the timetables will not be displayed. MBTA the Bus manual p. 14 general questions continued. ------------------------------------------------------------- ::::::> Why won't it find my route? Try setting the "Time of Day" to "Day", instead of evening. You do this from The Main Menu <Alt-M> By choosing the "Options" menu and selecting "Time of Day". ---------------------------------------------------------------- ::::::> Do I have to use the mouse and menus? No! You can just type in your request for directions, or you can use the menus by using keyboard keys. <Alt-M> gets you to main menu. You move the Up and Dn arrows to the item on any menu you wish, and then press <Enter> key to select that menu. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ::::::::> I have a bus pass. How can MBTA the Bus give me directions not involving the subway? Go to the Main Menu and select Options. Type <I>. Then Enter. then Escape out of the menus. You should see the words "Ignore Subway" in the box to the right. Now any routes found will not involve the subway. ---------------------------------------------------------------- MBTA the Bus manual p. 15 TECHNICAL NOTES Feel free to ignore this section, as it has nothing to do with your use of the program. I just included it in case anyone was interested in the process used by the program. MBTA the Bus is data driven. The subway portion of the route is "hardcoded" and may be found in shareware form as "Mbtav8h.zip". This program uses a tree emulation. Every stop has a record in a main list. The Harvard stop for the No. 1 bus is a seperate stop from the Harvard stop for the No. 66 bus, by the way, as are all other distict stops. Stop names are obtained by number reference to a list on disk. Attached to the stop name is information about that stop. What route, the stop number on the route, etc. The list is integrated by "next" pointers. The program merely goes up and down this list, looking for the information it needs to find a route. A driver routine looks for the shortest route, trying out every reasonable route, and counting the number of stops, always selecting the best one. Filters restricting the route are localized in a test routine. When the Evening filter is on, the program checks the actual "last bus" time for each route to see that it is after 7:00 PM. The only Undocumented function is if the user types "the moon" or "mars" for a request. A suitible prompt is supplied. Other words are also cued in this fashion. Mbta the Bus does not write to disk, with the exception of the creation of the configuration file tdir.cfg by the MBTASET program. The source for the data is the MBTA bus cards for bus routes. For commuter rail, the book Car Free in Boston was used - an excellent T information guide. (1988 Association for Public Transportation. ISBN 0-945990-01-4) The mention of this book in no way constitutes any type of endorsement of this software by the book's authors or publisher. The program was written using the Turbo Pascal 7.0 integrated language system, a product of Borland International, of Scotts Valley, CA.