Is XTension Dead?

[Chuck Pelto]

XTension is working great here.

Especially since the neighbor of several years has moved away and taken whateverthehellitwas that was interfering with the electricity-by-jamming. 

The house is back under control.

Chuck

> On Oct 20, 2022, at 11:19 AM, chad at holeinthewoodsfarm.com wrote:
> 
> I doubt it’s dead.  But it’s been a long time since the community has had the kind of you-can-hack-it excitement and creativity that had everyone solving all sorts of problems with nothing more than an SE30, some AppleScript, and a skyway racer. And I don’t know that it will get back there.
> 
> I think it’s a bit of a victim of its own success, the maturation (well, maybe not mature.  But it’s become less fringe) of home automation tech in general (we may have done more impressive stuff with less impressive tech in the ‘90’s, but we HAD to do it ourselves.  A lot of the simple stuff that used to take some creativity is now just an Alexa or google away for the masses, who are the. Don’t get driven to the more creative stuff).  And email listservs 
> (Though what I strongly prefer) have really faded as a community center, in favor of web forums (which I hate), etc.  
> 
> So, in the past, you could ask a question about how to do something, and get 10 different approaches,any with code samples posted on-list, each with a different take and different hardware requirements (and, damnit, I -really- Mia the Bik proximity sensor!), and a lot of absurd fun along the way.  Now, if you have a question about how to do something, it tends to fall to waiting until James has time to implement it.  Obviously less energy behind it when it always falls to one person.  
> 
> I was absent for about 12 years in there, with life changes moving me away from home automation, so I didn’t see it happening.  I just came back a few years ago, and the difference in the community from when I left to when I came back was stark.
> 
> That’s one reason why most of my real-world interfacing has now moved to home assistant.  It’s faster, more stable, and has a giant community behind it that somewhat resembles the XTension community of 20 years ago.  Yet I keep all the complex stuff running in XTension, clunkily patching the two with json web hooks for the most part. Because it’s easier to code in AppleScript than yaml and/or Python, and, frankly, scripts that worked 20 years ago still do…
> 
> For me, and I believe many of the OG XTension folks, it’s that creative community that has kept XTension so close to our hearts..  I’m not sure how to resurrect it…
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Oct 20, 2022, at 06:29, Steve Blethen <ssblethen59 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Burk,
>> 
>> I’ll admit things have been really quiet of late.  It is looking like the party is winding to a close.  I’m just wondering where did everybody go?
>> 
>> -Steve
>> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 19, 2022, at 7:45 PM, Burk Roberts <cyburk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> With the impending release of Ventura I can’t help but notice that there haven’t been but a handful of messages posted to the list in months, and XTension itself hasn’t been updated since spring, and I don’t even remember the last time we heard from James.
>>> 
>>> After nearly 20 years is this how it ends? If there’s anybody left, say it ain’t so...
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>> 
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