Re: Any xAP people put there?

[Kevin Hawkins <yahoogroupskh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mark... You got in too soon... I hadn't managed, in the 5 minutes
since
the original post existed, to get a reply in.. I will post also back in
that thread.

Both xAP (and xPL) are pretty mature now and not really in any need of
tweaks or enhancements to perform their role, plus most basic devices
and applications are covered. They do what they set out to and are still
pretty much the only 'easy' solution available , They didn't achieve the
snowball support we needed but that's another story...  What they
ongoingly  need is people contributing their own connectors, adding the
devices they own and building a library of supported devices. This isn't
really happening though and  I've just about exhausted all the ones I
have access to.

What is interesting is that the original poster 'Triton' (posts=1)  is
so typical of many many xAP users.  You never hear of them, they don't
post on the main xAP lists / forums , ask questions, tell stories or
contribute their own code or how to's. Yet they suddenly decloak with
long lists of devices they are using and comments like..

"I have been running xAP for more than 9 years and have done a few
installs for clients as well as my own network. Overall it has been
great. I feel bad that I don't have the time/skills to help develop
Connectors or maintain the existing Hubs, Connectors and Applications.
"

That's pretty much it in a nutshell and the guys that do/did contribute
all the stuff just don't have the time or access to the variety of kit
that still needs xAP enabling.  New devices appear and the existing
applications need maintaining - the posters RFXtrx433 falling into
exactly that category` when he later explores how to get someone to
write a xAP conduit for it.   . There's also a growing number of people
that use xAP, have written their own device support and applications but
won't publish because the documentation is lacking, it is feature
incomplete or they just don't want the support headache.  Been there,
done that.    xAP and xPL have that dichotomy of contribution / reward.

There is still not , as far as I am aware, an alternative solution to
xAP/xPL that is so simple, expandable and accessible to anyone with a
modicum of script/coding know how .  It provides the model for people to
interconnect all their different devices and get them chatting.. but it
will never be an off the shelf plug and play solution for people and for
more devices unless they contribute back to the community... and I'm
afraid they don't.

My own HA system, especially on the AV side, has now also included one
of the well known commercial offerings (Crestron) with their vast
libraries of devices supported - unfortunately often with matching $$
costs.  However those $$ drive contributions so in a way it's the
opposite scenario.    You get what you pay for. Most of my system is
still xAP based and  I expect it to be so for the foreseeable future, as
it makes almost everything possible for me with my hobbyist level of
coding ability and time .   I even have xAP modules running on Crestron.

However I also look forward to any new solutions that might appear too,
but I'm not holding my breath .

K

On 11/10/2012 16:43, Mark McCall wrote:
> Can you help....
>
> <
> http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?3494-Ongoing-development
> Thanks
>
> M.
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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