Re: xPL - k8000 Gateway Release (12/05/2005)

[Gerry Duprey <gerry@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy Tom,

> This is the release of my first xPL software and also my first release
> on the internet. Please be gentle and let me know if there are any
bugs.

Congratulations on your first xPL gateway!  Always feels good to ship
product, eh?

Not sure how many people use the k8000 (to be honest, I hadn't heard of it
before you started posting), but with luck, more folks will and will now be
drawn to it as it can be controlled via xPL.  Be sure to post a news item
and add a download link at the xPL web site so folks can find your
software.

I took a look at your code and it looked very good.  One comment would be
to
use a case-insensitive string comparisons when looking at values in
received
xPL messages.  While messages tend to use lower case, the receiver, when it
is possible and won't break things, is best if it can be liberal in what it
accepts (i.e. ignore case unless it's crucial to the purposes of the
message).

xPLLib includes a platform-portable xPL_strcmpIgnoreCase() function which
works exactly like strcmp() with the exception of being case insensitive.
Perfect for parsing xPL message contents.

I'd also suggest your vendor and device ID's in the xPL_createService() are
set to lower case and it would probably be a good idea to add a
xPL_setServiceVersion() call in there as well.  Tools like DCM can show you
the version of all xPL apps (that have a version).

And, as you've probably read, the new xPLLib with full device configuration
support is available.  Based on what I saw in your code, you should be able
to add at least a basic level of configurability in about 5 minutes. 
Adding
more configurables will take a bit longer, but not too much more.  There is
updated example code in the download along with some other notes in
CONFIG.txt (like using xPL_sendServiceMessage instead of xPL_sendMessage).

Great job!!

Gerry
--
Gerry Duprey
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
http://www.cdp1802.org