| ECS Home Automation and Security Archives |
| Subject: From: Date: | RE: [ecs] 2.3.04 released Mark Gilmore Wed, 27 Aug 2003 08:04:42 -0700 |
Hi Rob, Thanks so much for your learned insights :-). I am porting to Linux for another ECS-related (private label) project. And since I am already doing the work, I might as well release ECS/Linux to see how it goes. RE JAVA/.NET: Unless critical problems develop, I'll stick with JAVA (be it Sun and/or MS VM). I have devoted a huge # of manhours into this code, and am extremely wary of any MS-specific solutions. Plus I really REALLY hate Gates. If it costs me $ to keep from further enriching him, that's money well spent. Some might call that foolish. I call it principled :-). Regards, At 08:31 AM 8/27/2003 -0600, you wrote: >Mark, > >I noted that in the revision history for 2.3.04 you included some fixes for >what you characterized as Sun's buggy Java platform. Here are some thoughts >that, as usual, are probably worth nothing. > >Java was Sun's star several years ago. Now, Sun is in trouble. Their >business has dropped off significantly. Sun has been forced to begin >focusing on its core business, which has historically been high end >workstation. As a result, Java has suffered, and in my opinion, is in >trouble. IBM is actually doing more with Java now than Sun is. > >This is one of the reasons I asked some time ago how many of your users >really care about running ECS on anything but Windows. Nonetheless, I saw >that you started working on a Linux port. While I love Linux, I doubt too >many of your users, other than hard core techies, will ever deploy Linux, >unless it comes preconfigured for them. I think you saw that last time you >tried. My earlier point was that if you wanted to move your product to one >that is adopted by the masses, that Windows is probably your platform of >choice. To achieve widespread adoption, ECS needs to become less techie. > >Moreover, while Java at one time was really cool, I think Microsoft's new >.NET initiative will eclipse it. .NET has a superior development environment >that supports numerous languages. .NET overcomes much of the slowness >associated with an interpretive language such as Java, because it uses a >common language runtime that is compiled once on the target machine. > >Anyway, I would encourage you to look at .NET. If ECS were implemented as a >.NET service on the server, I think that it could potentially benefit from a >number of .NET services. See >http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/technologyinfo/default.aspx. However, >I think ECS could benefit dramatically from .NET on the client. With .NET >there are two basic ways to go, either a WebForm client that can runs most >of the client controls on the server, which spits out HTML, or through a >WinForm client. See http://www.dotnetextreme.com/articles/DotNetClients.asp. > >The Smart WinForm client is my choice. I'm working with a company that has >recently implemented a solution using a Smart WinForm client. The >programming environment permits rapid development. The GUI is rich and >interactive. The client is actually being written by a couple of engineers >in different languages (C# and C++). What's really cool for developers is >that if they know how to write Java code, C# is a snap to pick up. > >Anyway, the client is lightning fast and very small. It is only about 700K >in size. It runs through firewalls, proxy servers, etc, because it uses port >80. The downside is that .NET needs to run on the client. New Windows OS' >are automatically shipping with .NET. Downloads (around 20MB) are available >for the other platforms, all the way back to Windows 98. It doesn't support >Windows 95 or Windows 3.x. See >http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=262d25e3-f589-4842- >8157-034d1e7cf3a3&DisplayLang=en. > >Anyway, I've probably babbled enough. > >Let me know what you think. > >Regards, >Rob Hicks >+1.801.836.0904 >rob.hicks@comcast.net > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Mark Gilmore [mailto:mark@markgilmore.net] >Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 6:08 PM >To: ecs@netbloc.com >Subject: [ecs] 2.3.04 released > >Hi everyone, >ECS 2.3.04 has been uploaded to >http://OmnipotenceSoftware.com/ECS_SETUP.EXE. >Update history attached. >For instructions, please see manual ("Installing Updates" section). >Regards, > >Mark Gilmore >http://OmnipotenceSoftware.com > > > >--- >Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). >Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003 Mark Gilmore http://OmnipotenceSoftware.com
--- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003