xPL/xAP was Re: Re: MusicLobby Users?

["David Buckley" <db@xxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Mick Furlong" <hiltoneltd@y...>
wrote:
> Just to add my support for a bridge, I am currently playing with
both xAP
> and xPL and would really appreciate a gateway/bridge.

Just to add my $0.02

As intimated to elsewhere, a straight bridge can never happen, as
bridges and gateways merely repackage existing data without changing
their contents.  The semantics of the data are different, not just
through accident or bloody-mindedness, but by policy, so just
passing data on unchanged from one realm to the other is a non-
starter.

Either (a) there will have to be some generic xAP/xPL
"conversion"
specification, which implies that the bridge either has to know or
be taught intimate details of all schemae (sp?) that need to be
handled, or (b) the "gateway" need to have script written that
takes
an incoming message and regenerates it into a new schema.

The great thing (and great problem) with xAP/xPL is they are both
semantically very rich.  Kitchen sink rich.  Conversion and
interpretation (and indeed understanding) was never going to be
easy :-)  Its highly appropriate for complex data, but I'm know
there are some who (despite such fixups as targeting) still argue
its just too heavy and too unfocussed for most "real world" home
automation applications.  Both EIB and CBus manage with relatively
tiny messages, yet cover a massive range of real world devices.

I'm still hopeful that xAP and xPL will change the world; its just
taking longer than I hoped.  The very best thing that is happening
is that folks who are trying to glue stuff together are looking at
x?? as the glue, and that has to be encouraged.