[BRLTTY] OT: computing routes, exploring maps

[Shérab]

Dear all,

Sorry for an off-topic question. It seems not completely irrelevent to
me to ask it here because we all share more or less the same computer
environemnt, so something that works for one person may be appreciated
by another one.

I am looking for two kind of tools.

1. Computing routes. I'd like to do it off-line. Basically, I'd like to
give address of departure and arrival and get as an output the precise
route. I know that there are many systems doing that around, including
e.g. Google maps, but one thing I'm missing from these systems is that
they don't say e.g. how many roads one will have to cross before, say,
turning right. So one classical hint may be that you have to turn left
in 300 meters, but what I really would like to know is that it is going
to be the third road and that I hence have to cross two roads.

2. Exploring maps. It is again for off-line use. I'd like to start from
a given address and explore crossings as if I'd be walking. So at each
crossing I'd be able to know which roads do cross at that point and then
make a decision to follow one road until the next crossing. i'd also
like to know how the addresses evolve as I progress.

Any help on these would be more than appreciated. I own an old dedicated
GPS system which used to do these things but now hardly turns on and
whose user interface is so impractical that it could be used while
teaching user interfaces as a counter examples of things one should
absolutely avoid doing.

Many thanks in advance,

Shérab.