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Minimal 2000-era editing capabilities for Home Composer


davidq

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I just got Home Composer 1.8.2, and I found c4diy.com's "How do I?" section enormously helpful in getting over the learning curve.

I want the ability to right-click an object to bring up a context menu that would let me:

. Rename the object

. Copy/Cut/Paste the [single!] object

. Change the properties of the object

I want the ability to select multiple objects with Shift- and Ctrl-click selections.

Those capabilities have been around in Windows based programming for decades.

The only way, the way Composer work now, so far as I can tell, to rename or change the properties -- that is, the definition -- of an object, is to delete and recreate the object! That takes me back in time ... all the way to the 70s.

I hallucinate that part of the problem is that these "objects" aren't really designed as such in this interactive development environment. That is, it's not Object-Oriented Programming, even though it would seem to be a perfect candidate for that.

If I were managing the programming for this system I'd be looking first at whether I could leverage the open source Eclipse IDE for this job. But Eclipse uses a lot of resources, so I might need to look further.

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You think it's spam for me, a new Control 4 user, to mention a site that I found helpful in getting started?? (With the apostrophe "s" on the end, it doesn't even make a live link.)

I found that site when searching these forums. It was far more useful to me than the Composer help or anything I found here. I don't mean that in a negative way. It's just that I didn't find any How To postings here.

So I thought others might also find it helpful.

--David

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I just got Home Composer 1.8.2, and I found c4diy.com's "How do I?" section enormously helpful in getting over the learning curve.

I want the ability to right-click an object to bring up a context menu that would let me:

. Rename the object

. Copy/Cut/Paste the [single!] object

. Change the properties of the object

I want the ability to select multiple objects with Shift- and Ctrl-click selections.

Those capabilities have been around in Windows based programming for decades.

The only way, the way Composer work now, so far as I can tell, to rename or change the properties -- that is, the definition -- of an object, is to delete and recreate the object! That takes me back in time ... all the way to the 70s.

I hallucinate that part of the problem is that these "objects" aren't really designed as such in this interactive development environment. That is, it's not Object-Oriented Programming, even though it would seem to be a perfect candidate for that.

If I were managing the programming for this system I'd be looking first at whether I could leverage the open source Eclipse IDE for this job. But Eclipse uses a lot of resources, so I might need to look further.

While all of this seems easy to incorporate, do you think it makes sense for C4 to spend in this area? If you have been reading this forum you can understand that the dealer is the one who sets-up the project inititally. Basically, CHE covers the last 20%, lets say, that the HO can customize the project.

Overall, Composer is something, in my opinion, Control4 probably got pressured into producing. I'm not saying I'm happy with CHE either but it offers more flex. than some other brand(s).

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Absolutely, yes, this is something good to spend money on. I haven't seen the dealer programmer, but I suspect it is merely an un-crippled version of CHE where, for example, you're allowed to rename objects.

So improvements to the programmer redound to both dealer and homeowner, *even if they're not released to homeowner* because it makes the dealer more efficient, which means -- one would hope -- that dealer could either offer more/better customization services for the same cost or offer reduced cost.

(Editorial comment: While I understand the strategy, I think it's a crappy way to keep customers beholden to their dealer by limiting what the customers themselves are reasonably allowed to do. I'd think that good service is what would lead many homeowners to say, "I don't want to fool with this, let the dealer take care of me.")

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