Version
Updates
Registration
Installation
User Guide
Strange behaviours
How it works
Acknowledgements
History
How to contribute
This version of "Métro" is numbered 3.0.2. Always check on the "Tatami et Bouts de Ficelle" web page (in english) that you got the latest release.
Métro is frequently updated (about every
other week). If you want to be notified of new releases, you can subscribe
to our mailing list : .
If you like this software, don't forget to send us a mail (to Patrice Bernard & Frank Van Caenegem), it is our only reward for this work and it does not cost you a penny, does it ? You can also send your comments and suggestions or even tell us about any bug you may discover (Patrice for the Palm program and Frank for the PocketPC program and network data).
You are free (and encouraged) to redistribute this software through any channel provided that: (1) the program has not been modified in any way and (2) it is offered free of charge. As usual, this software is provided "as is" with no warranty of any sort.
You could (and should!) help us make Métro better: see §History.
The city databases from versions older than 2.2.0 cannot be used with this new release. It is recommended that you delete any version of Métro older than 2.2.0 before installing this one ("Memory" icon on your Pilot, then "Delete" button on PalmOS 2.0 or option "Delete" in system menu "App" on PalmOS 3.0).
Some files in this package contain text with accented and other special characters that may not be supported in certain localized version of the PalmOS (japanese, chinese, russian, ...). In this case, you should download the "international" Métro package: "metro-int.zip".
You should have received "Métro" as a compressed file named "metro.zip". This file contains the software as well as all the subway networks (more than 150 of them):
Programs & Directories | Notes |
metro.prc |
Program in french |
metro-en.prc |
Program in english |
metro-de.prc |
Program in german |
metro-nl.prc |
Program in dutch |
metro-sp.prc |
Program in spanish |
metro-it.prc |
Program in italian |
metro-pt.prc |
Program in portuguese |
metro-se.prc |
Program in swedish |
metro-da.prc |
Program in danish |
metro-vn.prc |
Program in vietnamese |
metro-eu.prc |
Program in basque |
metro-ca.prc |
Program in catalan |
all/*.pdb |
All the subway networks |
gr/*.pdb |
Greek networks (to use with Intergreek) |
ru/*.pdb |
Russian networks in cyrillic (to use with CyrHack) |
nordic/*.pdb |
Danish, Finnish, Norwegian & Swedish networks with local sort order (to use with SortingHack activated, for "nordic" Pilots) |
PocketPC/*.exe |
Program for PocketPC: select the version corresponding to your CPU |
Networks list (most are subways, some of them contain streetcar or train lines as well):
Argentina Buenos Aires Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Belgium Belorussia Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile China Colombia Croatia |
Czeh Republic Liberec (2)(9) Pilsen (2)(9) Prague (2) Denmark Egypt England Finland France Georgia Germany |
Germany (cont'd) Leipzig Magdeburg (8) Mainz (9) Mülheim-Oberhausen München (2)(8) Nürnberg Rhein-Neckar (11) Stuttgart (2) Greece Hungary India Iran Ireland Israel Italy Japan Korea Korea (North) |
Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Mexico Netherlands Norway Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Romania Russia Scotland Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Spain |
Sweden Göteborg Stockholm (4)(8) Switzerland Taďwan Thailand Tunisia Turkey Ukraine United States Uzbekistan Venezuela |
Notes : (1) Brussels exists in french (bruxelles.pdb) and flamish (brussels.pdb); (2) operating time-aware networks; (3) cyrillic version available; (4) "nordic" sort order version available; (5) the Tokyo networks goes far beyond the city limits (more than 100 km!); (6) the S2 line is missing in Hamburg because it runs very infrequently; (7) korean version available; (8) "Places of Interest" included; (9) Bus network; (10) chinese version (big-5) available; (11) The Rhein-Neckar database contains many cities, among them Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg; (12) "extended" versions available (paris-ext.pdb, newyork-ext.pdb, philadelphia-ext.pdb & chicago-ext.pdb), including the complete suburban railway network (install only one of the files); (13) greek version available.
With the installation utility (HotSync) you got with your Palm Pilot, select one and only one version of the software (.prc files) and at least one subway network (.pdb files). Then "synchronize" your Pilot.
When "Métro" is installed on your Palm, launch it (through its icon), go to the "Options" menu and select "Network". In the list, select the network you want to use (if you loaded more than one) and confirm your choice with the "OK" button.
The easiest solution : you
write down the names of the departure and arrival
stations (you need only enter the first letters,
Métro will complete the names for you) then
"tap" on the (go) button. Part of a name may
be enough (in Paris, "Etoile" will find the
station "Charles de Gaulle-Etoile").
Assisted solution :
"tap" on the (from) button, a list appears
with all the stations. Just "tap" on the one
you're looking for, it is displayed as the departure
station. When you "tap" on the
(to) button, you can do the same
for the arrival station. Finally, "tap" on the
(go) button.
Intelligent assistance : same
as above but before you "tap" on one of
the or
buttons, enter the first
few characters of the name of the station. The
position in the list is updated to the name closest to
your entry.
Permanent assistance : after the list is displayed (as above), simply enter text in the Departure or Arrival field. The position in the list is updated to the name closest to your entry.
The fastest: write the down the first characters of your departure station, enter the graffiti linefeed sign, enter the first characters of your destination station then again the graffiti linefeed sign: the calculation is done!
In some cities, you can search a site instead of a subway station (how do I go to the Eiffel tower, for example). These sites appear in bold in the stations list.
The (back) button is a simple way to compute
your route back from Arrival to Departure without having to enter
the names of the stations again.
The (clear) button resets the "Métro"
GUI : it clears the departure and arrival station, the
stations list and the result field. It also optionnally resets
the current time.
This feature is available only with some of the databases.
When using these cities, the day of the week and time are
displayed on screen. You just have to "tap" these
fields to change your travel time. The (clear) button can optionnally reset the current
time.
On the current day and time, some lines may not operate; "Métro" takes this into account to compute a route.
The "Lines" popup list gives you the list of stations for any line. You may click on one of these stations to enter it in the "From" or "To" field (depending on the one where the caret is). Arrows (up or down) before the name of a station denotes a stop in only one direction.
In cities where the operating times are managed, some lines may not operate on the selected day or time. In this case the line name is crossed out in gray in the list.
You can also select your own closed lines (if temporarily closed for example): with the stylus, just "cross out" the line name in the list (draw a neat horizontal line from left to right). Repeat the action to cancel your choice. When a line has been so closed, its name is crossed out in black in the list (not to confuse with the time management above). This feature is a work in progress: the personal closed lines are not saved between uses.
In some cities, the database contains a list of
"Interesting places": the program can give you
directions to go to these places, just as for a station. To see
the list, "tap" on the (sites) button next to the line popup. The button is
grayed out if there are no interesting places in the current
database.
You may have noticed a small icon next to the line
popup: you can use it to get the subway station of one of your
contacts. When you "tap" on the button, a list is
displayed containing all the contacts in your address book with a
"metro" field. If you select one of the names, its
subway station is entered in the "from" or
"to" field.
For this feature to work, you'll have to create a cusom field named "metro" (case insensitive) in your address book and fill this field for your contacts. Check your device user's guide to learn how to do this.
When you "tap" on the (go) button (or enter the linefeed graffiti
in the "to" field), the calculation starts. If it's
taking some time (more than about 2 seconds), a progression bar
is displayed on screen. You can "tap" on it to stop the
search, you'll get the best route calculated so far.
After a search, the results lists displays 1 or 2 different routes for your request: the shortest route and the route using the least number of connections. If they are the same, only the shortest is displayed. Sometimes, both may take the same time and number of connections but have some difference.
Tap once in the results to copy to the clipboard. You can then paste it in a memo or a mail.
The button (informations) shows informations
on the selected city, along with the names of the people who
contributed to the database.
In the "Options" menu, the "Preferences" item has 3 choices :
For those who don't know how to access the menus on their Palm, check the silk-screen button bottom-left of the graffiti zone... And take a break to read your device user guide :-)
The "Network" option shows the list of cities you have installed with "Métro". Select one city in the list and tap the "OK" button to look for a route in that city subway. Or use the "Delete" button to erase the selected database from your Pilot's memory (you cannot delete the database currently in use).
Another button appears in the window when the soft is installed on a Pilot with an IR interface : "Beam". Using it, you can transfer a database from your Pilot to another one where "Métro" is installed. The actual transfer is realized only if the database you send is not already present on the receiver.
You can also access the "Network" option simply by "tapping" on the city name in the "Métro" main form title.
In some instances, you may think the behaviour of the software is not correct. It is possible that it is a "feature" (more or less voluntary). Here are the known cases :
If you have ideas for making "Métro" better of you find other errors, let me know about it.
A little explanation on the inner workings of Métro to help you understand its current limitations.
To compute the best route, the program uses an estimate of the time needed to run each route. But to avoid filling the memory with too much data (the timetables), the times used are quite simplified.
There are only two variations: one average time for a travel between 2 stations on a subway and one average time between 2 stations on an express or streetcar line. For example on Paris, the times used are 1'30 for the first (subways) and 3' for the second (RER and streetcars).
For the connections, it's just about the same: one time for a "standard" connection and one average time for a "long" connection (between 2 different stations or to an express line, to account for the longer wait). Again for Paris, values are 4' and 8'.
This method, though quite efficient most of the time, brings its limitations (but I'm working on some of them): travel times on express lines are computed with all the intermediate stations (express lines not being yet known to the program) leading to over-estimation; the soft does not make a difference if a line is more frequent than another, so that it may suggest a low-frequency line when there is a better one for the same route.
This point is what makes Métro less adequate for streetcars, railroads or buses (these having other peculiarities making them difficult to use in Métro).
In the subway lines display, you may have noticed some blank lines and stations listed twice or more. This marks a line with diverging branches.