As an engineer, I simply don't have time to learn any more

Android? IIRC there's a widget called "Traffic (shortcut)" which you can place. Tapping it brings up a simplified line drawing with real time traffic on surrounding main arteries.

>>61900329
>What do I need to learn programming-wise to make a desktop widget that does that?
that's not important. do you have a source for the real time traffic data that you could use?

>>61900329
>As an engineer, I simply don't have time to learn any more than necessary.
you will fail as an engineer with this attitude

>What do I need to learn programming-wise to make a desktop widget that does that?
electron + google maps api, or bing maps, or openstreetmap, or mapbox, or leaflet, or umap

This level of faggottory is only possible from an "engineer"

>As an engineer, I simply don't have time to learn any more than necessary.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhahahahahahaha

>>61900373

Google maps doesn't have an API? I figured it would be as simple as:

Google maps allows you to grab some piece of data about traffic from a point on the road (Slow, normal, fast/ red, yellow, green). Take 20-25 of these points representing major areas of the highways, plot to a graphical interpretation as a series of red/ yellow/ green dots.

>>61900390
>>61900494

I have a crappy job, where I have to do everything technical required at the plant and company level. I have no help, so I really don't have time for much more than putting out fires. This is a personal project though.

>>61900531
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/layer-traffic
it does. so you can just pack this into an electron app I guess

>>61900531
>>61901329
BUT I don't think you can actually get the raw traffic data like you said

>>61900531
>>61901329
>>61901346
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4600656/access-googles-traffic-data-through-a-web-service/6245718#6245718
>UPDATE (March 2016): A lot has happened since this answer was written in 2011, but the core points appear to hold up: You won't find raw traffic data in free API services (at least not for the U.S., and probably not most other places). But if you don't mind paying a bit and/or if you just need things like "travel time for a specific route taking traffic into consideration" you have options. @Anto's answer, for example, points to Google's Maps For Work as a paid API service that allows you to get travel times taking traffic into consideration.
yeah, so in the end getting the data is the harder part, not programming. just as I though

File: fuck this.jpg (2KB, 125x125px) Image search: [Google]

2KB, 125x125px

>>61900329

how can you tell when you are talking to an engineer?

don't worry, they'll tell you.

>>61900329
>As an engineer, I simply don't have time to learn any more than necessary.
s/engineer/lazy consumer

> What do I need to learn programming-wise to make a desktop widget that does that?
One of the supported programming or scripting languages with all the usual stuff you need to know, algorithm and data structures basics, various practical details of operating an IDE and debugger and maybe CI and version control (just the supporting tools that make doing good work actually faster overall), and some more.

Can be learned to a degree where you can do a reasonable job in a few hundred hours, and a few thousand to ten thousand hours to do a great job.

>>61900329
>As an engineer
>Learning is hard
4chan is an 18+ website, son.