10/25   Do any websites (ala Mapquest or Etak) approximate The Travelling
        Salesman Problem? I went to visit 15 condos in San Diego today, and
        it was a bitch using Yahoo+Thomas guide to map out a semi-ideal
        route. I don't need an optimum path, just a first order approximation.
        I don't think I'll ever need more than 20 addresses at once either...
        I'd pay $.99 every time I need this feature...
        \- the emacs mapquest interface can do that.
           do M-x mapquest-metropolis --psb
           \_ I knew emacs was cool. I didn't know how cool until now.
           \_ Is this the real psb? Because that didn't work for me.
              \- you need the Los Alamos Simulated Annealing emacs lisp
                 package. --psb
              \- that was not the real psb. ok tnx. -psb
                 \- no, that was me. the immediately above is not me. --psb
                 \_ You mean it was !psb, right psb?
        \_ What is the "Travelling Salesman Problem"?
           \_ No cookie.
           \_ find out the route which traverses all cities with the minimum
              distance.
        \_ Just use the thomas guide. It's at 1200dpi. mapquest is at
           whatever resolution your monitor is at.
           \_ you're a moron
               \_ My point is that there is WAY more detail on a single
                  thomas guide page than on 30 yahoo maps put together.
                        \_ Okay, get a Real map (Thomas or AAA) big enough
                           to fit all the points. Then put a dot sticker at
                           each address and use your highly evolved
                           mamalian intellect to see patterns. Connect the
                           dots. Do you have a beter solution?
                           dots. It's not perfect, but do you have a solution?
                  \_ You're still a moron. The OP wants to know how to get
                     from point A -> B -> ... -> Z in an optimal manner.
        \_ Hey person with Etak friend... can you ask them if they have
           anything like that. Or is there any API where a 3rd party could
           program that feature?
        \_ I can't wait until <DEAD>maps.google.com<DEAD>... google would support it!
        \_ Even your first order solution will be near useless because of the
           ugly realities of traffic patterns, highway congestion, etc.  I'll
           get 30 miles down a freeway at 3am faster than you'll get 10 miles
           down a dirt road at noon.  Just use some common sense.
           \- the algorithms allow for weights ... of coure knowing what
              weights to plug in in a little tricky. i am not sure the
              algorithms i know of can deal with "asymmetric" weights ...
              usually on a metric the distance from d(x,y) = d(y,x) which
              clearly isnt true with traffic flows if we care about time.
              although some LA trunks seem to be equally congested in both
              directions. --psb
           \_ When you're taking city streets within a 5 mile range, it
              isn't that big of a difference. Or at least not in my case.
        \_ isn't there a way to plot multiple locations at once? just do that
           and do a rough aproximation yourself. the above poster is right...
           small distance details will be less important than type of road,
           traffic, etc. But just plotting them all on one map should be
           enough for you to use common sense to plan a route.
           \_ This would work. Which service supports this (yahoo doesn't)?