

Ask HN: I very much need a route software for 100+ locations - klbarry

I will be walking 100+ fashion boutiques in NYC and I have a list ready put together. However, most route software only allows input of up to 25. Does anyone know a way to do this without figuring it all out by hand?
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iqster
Are you asking for the shortest route that covers all the locations you want
to visit? If so, it is computationally very hard to deal with 100+ locations
and come up with an exact solution. This is known as the Traveling Salesman
(err. Salesperson?) Problem and it is NP complete. There do exist some
heuristics-based algorithms that may be faster but don't give the exact
solution.

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klbarry
Doesn't necessarily have to be shortest, I can approximate that myself. I just
need a map that actually allows for 100+ inputs. I think I found something
cool here, though: <http://batchgeo.com/>. Testing now.

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iqster
Have you tried Google Earth? You can create a KML file with hundreds of place-
markers or routes connecting points. I've had good experience with this on the
desktop.

Don't have a suggestion for mobile, I'm afraid.

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klbarry
Thank you! - I think Google earth would have been my next best bet, but the
site I mentioned earlier worked out fine.

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timrobinson
I don't have any suggestions, but I'm not sure you want to figure it out by
hand: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem>

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klbarry
It doesn't necessarily have to be fastest, anything that can put all the
points on one map is fine.

