Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Driving Directions Syntax Coadified [SIC]

Noah Coad finally comes up with a concise and simple to follow syntax for giving written driving directions. I love it and plan to adopt it post-haste. I'm only changing two things.

  1. I'm putting a slash between the compass-direction and Left-Right indicator (e.g. N/L for "North by turning Left")
  2. I'm using X for Exit, not Ex
So his example with my changes is:
W 520, N/R I405, X S/L I5 A. 4m, X 179 W/L 220th, S/L 70th @ bottom of the hill B. 99 Aurora, * R Which translates to: “Go west on 520, Go north by turning right onto I405, Exit to the south by turning left on I5 after 4 miles, next take exit 179 and head west by turning left onto 220th, then go south by turning left onto 70th which will be at the bottom of the hill before 99 Aurora (in case you go too far), the place will be on your right”

Thanks Noah!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you find it useful. I like your updates! I'll have to give them a try. The slash should help make it more clear to the average reader the difference between NSEW and RL. Coolness. :)

Anonymous said...

Good comments on Noah's Driving Directions Syntax. I will have to incorporate them into my application of Noah's Syntax. Your "Coadified" word choice is clever.