HouseBot

Hi,



I thought I would get these items in while I still have that newbie perspective - something you lose quickly and can never have again!

Here are some issues I've encountered that would have made my learning process faster and easier...



- Set the enabled attribute of tasks and devices ON by default when they are created. I must be a slow learner, but I can't tell you how many times I've waited for a task to do something only to discover that it did not happen because of a missing enabled setting somewhere.



- Clarify the meaning of task conditions. Currently, it is unclear that task conditions trigger on changes of state rather than on an ongoing basis because the language implies state, not change of state.

As an example, the condition "If 'System Time.Sunrise Indicator' is equal '0' " implies that the conditions would be met all night long, when in fact it is met only at sundown.

I suggest the addition of an action word like "becomes" to the condition...

"If 'System Time.Sunrise Indicator' becomes equal to '0'". This clarifies the condition greatly (to me, at least).



(I know putting these items in the bug report section is a bit of stretch, but the other sections were more of a stretch )



Claude.

Claude,



Thanks for the feedback.



One thing that I had planned for version 2.0 was to set the 'Enabled' checkbox in bold (or red or something) if it a Device or Task was NOT enabled. I realize that this is an initial stumbling block. My fear was that things would start executing before they are ready if they were initially enabled. Maybe the risk of that happening is really less than the frustration of forgetting to enable things. I might give it a try in a version and see how it works.



I like your idea on using the word becomes for Task conditions.



Scott

I like Claude's ideas.



To avoid forgeting to enable things, I enable them before I fill the details, so maybe it's best to have them enabled by default. A more complicated approach would be to let the user define the system defaults. Maybe you would like to take this further with other system parameters that you think users would like to adjust.



For consistency, I suggest that if you change the enabled default, do it not only to tasks but also to Devices, Hardware Interfaces and Software Remotes.





Yoram