Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[WildBill47]

My mom once told my if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all, so in that spirit I will say that the AHP software in and of itself is ok, just ok.

Now the Smart Macro's is a mess, the real problem is the lack of a good manual, you have to learn nearly everything past the most simple things by trial and error, hunting these forums, calling support which mostly just get you sympathy (polite alway and helpful as they can be with no manual also.)

What would really help is a really comprehensive manual, not disjointed help screens all over the place, some nice flow charts that ties things together like triggers, conditions, flags, and all of the things one usually gets with software. I program in C++, Java, Java Script, HTML, and PIC Assembler and still am having trouble getting my arms around AHP SM's, like phantom modules, when to set trigger House/Unit codes to, using flags, and mainly how all of the parts tie together to end up with something that works.

That said I have got a few things going but with a lot of brute force approach and I would like to clean it up and do even more complex stuff but there are only so many hours in the day to devote to a darm macro language!

You guys might consider cross-licensing HomeZIX, now I have not actually tried it yet but the user interface from their demo's really look great but I would want it to talk to the CM15A and I am not sure if it does yet.

The best thing I can say about SM's was that it was sort of free, it was bundled in to something else I bought, so in some ways I guess you get what you pay for but come on guys, how about a good manual!

One last thing, it would be great if you took the macro's out of the ahx file and just linked to them from say myhouse.ahx, this way users could write the macro's and share them much easier.

Whine mode off -- sorry.

[Brian H]

Does any of the wiki page help?
http://kbase.x10.com/wiki/Smart_Macros

[WildBill47]

Thanks Brian,

I had that and have a folder where I am keeping links to each thing I can find and trying to make that resemble a manual, what they call a manual is what I would call a table of contents with a introduction to each section, then someone forgot to actually write the actual section

As along time programmer I guess I am spoiled, I am used to a nice structured manual that you can just jump around in and nab the core things you need, don't think I have ever read one cover to cover, but I usually read what one might call the architecture or schema, so you sort of get in the deveopers head and think like them, then the its just a matter of labels and syntax.

I have only been messing with them for a couple of weeks, but in the same time in on PIC's I had developed an entire application, com protocol, and tied it to and RF interface, with SM I am just glad to get a motion detector to trigger a camera, commander, with 2 conditions...

But again thank you for your time for the link 

[BVD]

Now the Smart Macro's is a mess, the real problem is the lack of a good manual, you have to learn nearly everything past the most simple things by trial and error, hunting these forums, calling support which mostly just get you sympathy (polite alway and helpful as they can be with no manual also.)

What would really help is a really comprehensive manual, not disjointed help screens all over the place, some nice flow charts that ties things together like triggers, conditions, flags, and all of the things one usually gets with software. I program in C++, Java, Java Script, HTML, and PIC Assembler and still am having trouble getting my arms around AHP SM's, like phantom modules, when to set trigger House/Unit codes to, using flags, and mainly how all of the parts tie together to end up with something that works.

WildBill47,
I don't know if this will help or not but there is a manual of sorts. You get AHP up on your computer, on the menu bar choose add-ins where you will find MyHouse, ..., Smart Macros. Put your mouse on the smart macors and you will see About and Help. Click on Help and this will bring up a context sensitive help file for smart macors. Each of the addins have their own help files.

Good Luck,
Bob

[HA Dave]

.... As a long time programmer..

That's your problem right there. I think the greatest amounts of complaints about AHP... come from programmers (and/or serious software users). I don't think the X10 folks set out to write software for software writers. I think AHP is HA programing... for NON-programmers.

Home Automation is a niche market at best. I would imagine.. if only programmers could use the computer interface... the market would be zero. So we're (YOUR) stuck an awkward, difficult software. But still... with a little time and reading (mostly here at the forums) AHP is amazingly useable.

[WildBill47]

.... As a long time programmer..

That's your problem right there. I think the greatest amounts of complaints about AHP... come from programmers (and/or serious software users). I don't think the X10 folks set out to write software for software writers. I think AHP is HA programing... for NON-programmers.

Home Automation is a niche market at best. I would imagine.. if only programmers could use the computer interface... the market would be zero. So we're (YOUR) stuck an awkward, difficult software. But still... with a little time and reading (mostly here at the forums) AHP is amazingly useable.

Oh I know and thanks, but one of the first rules about being is good programmer is to learn to complain a lot, bad docs, crummy code, can't get enough time on the main frame, the user is out of their mind. I will of course push though this but it does not mean I might not whine a little on the way, not a lot but a little