RE: Re: Do you have LCD or VFD Displays?

["Paul Gale" <groups@xxxxxxx>]

Thanks Patrick - that was very enlightening.



I look forward to seeing some examples of xAP powered displays.



Paul.



-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick Lidstone <patrick@xxxxxxx>
[mailto:patrick@xxxxxxx] 
Sent: 16 February 2003 19:01
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Re: Do you have LCD or VFD Displays?



--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Paul Gale" <groups@s...> wrote:
> I know there's some software out there aimed at the custom PC case
> modders that will send various text to some displays - such as MP3
info,
> PC temps, internet info etc.

LCDproc et al?

> Is the xAP way of doing things more flexible and powerful yet 

Yes, no doubt about it whatsoever. It goes deeper than just being
a convenient means to display stuff.

>or are
> there still some areas to get sorted? E.g. could I display MP3 info
and
> all the other things I mentioned in my first post?

I may have missed this post. In principle it can display MP3 info - 
I'll certainly be adding support for the Barix extreamer in due 
course. If you are the programming type, you can roll your sleeves up 
and add what you need as you go. To paint a fair picture, xAP is very 
much still work in progress, but (for me, for my needs anyway), has 
now reached a critical mass.

> And can I decide when
> and how that info will get displayed i.e. is there some kind of
> scheduling for it?

There are two approaches - the display can either be told to display 
something, and it will do it. This isn't leveraging the real power of 
xAP, but can be useful in specific circumstances. The second approach 
is that the display is configured (by the installer/end user) to 
display stuff on an intelligent basis - for example, the display in 
the lounge might detect an independent event which says "I'm starting
to play an MP3 in the lounge", and then display the track details.
Similarly, if the phone rings, the display takes the precendent to 
display the incoming call event broadcast on the network by the 
caller id device. Independently the MP3 player may also decide to 
pause the track in response to this event. 

There is a simple scheduler process which can run anywhere on the 
network. This process can generate events at specified times, which 
can then be acted on by one or more xAP enabled devices/applications. 
The scheduler is fault tolerant, so you shouldn't ever be left in the 
situation where "my alarm clock didn't go off" :-)

In due course, I intend for my devices to have centralised 
configuration (not centralised control, necessarily), to simplify the 
overall co-ordination of interaction between devices. Today this 
configuration is a bit convoluted and has to be done by hand.

Patrick