paultag/wmata-dbus — explained in plain English
Analysis updated 2026-08-13 · repo last pushed 2015-09-30
Build a Linux desktop dashboard that shows real-time D.C. train and bus arrival times.
Create a custom home screen widget that displays the next arriving train at your usual station.
Let multiple local apps subscribe to transit updates without each needing to call the WMATA API directly.
| paultag/wmata-dbus | 0xdevalias/blackgooday | advayc/wrapped | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Language | Go | Go | Go |
| Last pushed | 2015-09-30 | 2018-04-09 | — |
| Maintenance | Dormant | Dormant | — |
| Setup difficulty | moderate | moderate | easy |
| Complexity | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Audience | developer | developer | general |
Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.
Bare README with no setup instructions, users must read the Go source to understand configuration, D-Bus registration, and what transit data is exposed.
This project, wmata-dbus, connects Washington, D.C.'s public transit data to a system messaging layer called D-Bus. In practical terms, it takes real-time information from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, things like train and bus arrival times, and republishes it so that other programs running on the same machine can easily listen for updates. D-Bus is a common way for applications on Linux systems to communicate with each other without needing to know the details of how the other works. Instead of every app writing its own code to fetch transit data from WMATA's API, this tool does that work once and broadcasts the results. Other software can then subscribe to those broadcasts and react accordingly. The people who would find this useful are developers building desktop applications, dashboards, or personal tools on Linux who want to show D.C. transit information. For example, someone building a custom home screen that displays the next arriving train at their usual station could use this as the data source, letting their interface focus on presentation rather than fetching and parsing transit data. The project is written in Go and appears to be a fairly small, purpose-built tool. The README doesn't go into detail about specific features, configuration, or installation steps, so anyone looking to use it would need to explore the code directly to understand how to set it up and what specific transit data it exposes. Given its single star and bare README, this looks like a personal utility rather than a polished, maintained product. It serves as a niche bridge for someone who wanted transit data flowing through their system's local messaging bus, and it's shared publicly in case others have the same need.
A small Go tool that fetches real-time Washington D.C. transit data (train and bus arrivals) from WMATA and republishes it on D-Bus so other Linux apps can subscribe to updates without each fetching the data themselves.
Mainly Go. The stack also includes Go, D-Bus, WMATA API.
Dormant — no commits in 2+ years (last push 2015-09-30).
Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 1h+ to a first successful run.
Mainly developer.
This repo across BitVibe Labs
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