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Category:Cumulus MX: Difference between revisions
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== Cumulus 2 == | == Cumulus 2 == | ||
This is intentionally a brief section, it does not cover all that was available in Cumulus 2, but just how it influenced MX. | |||
*Steve Loft produced a Cumulus 2 where he tried to start again in September 2009. It was written in C# (which is the language used for MX), and it is fair to say that Steve did not find that new programming language easy, and in March 2010 he was really struggling to make Cumulus 2 work how he desired. | *Steve Loft produced a Cumulus 2 where he tried to start again in September 2009. It was written in C# (which is the language used for MX), and it is fair to say that Steve did not find that new programming language easy, and in March 2010 he was really struggling to make Cumulus 2 work how he desired. | ||
* Cumulus 2 did prove that a number of concepts (like separating "engine" from "admin interface") could work and it was a useful learning curve for when Steve decided to write Cumulus 3 (see below). | * Cumulus 2 did prove that a number of concepts (like separating "engine" from "admin interface") could work, and it was a useful learning curve for when Steve decided to write Cumulus 3 (see below). | ||
*One change that had been requested by several Cumulus 1 users was for better international viewing of web pages, with less dependence on time zones. To achieve this, one suggestion was that Cumulus should work in GMT (more widely | *One change that had been requested by several Cumulus 1 users was for better international viewing of web pages, with less dependence on time zones. To achieve this, one suggestion was that Cumulus should work in GMT (more widely replaced now by UTC, which is not technically identical with GMT). Cumulus 2 therefore read and logged all readings by UTC. Unfortunately, converting from local time used by weather stations, and most computer devices, never worked as smoothly as Steve Loft hoped, so this is one idea that was not adopted for Cumulus 3. | ||
* Furthermore, Cumulus 2 never succeeded in getting some of the basic functionality like driving web pages to work, so it never offered much of the more useful functionality of Cumulus 1. | * Furthermore, Cumulus 2 never succeeded in getting some of the basic functionality like driving web pages to work reliably, so it never offered much of the more useful functionality of Cumulus 1. | ||
*But it was a good testing ground for new functionality and enhancements and regardless of whether they could be made to work fully in Cumulus 2, some were highlighting what Cumulus 1 lacked. | *But it was a good testing ground for new functionality and enhancements and regardless of whether they could be made to work fully in Cumulus 2, some were highlighting what Cumulus 1 lacked. | ||
*In August 2010, the new features being tested in Cumulus 2 were added to Cumulus 1, and Cumulus 2 was discontinued. | *In August 2010, the new features being tested in Cumulus 2 were added to Cumulus 1, and Cumulus 2 was discontinued. | ||
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== Cumulus 3 == | == Cumulus 3 == | ||
*In 2015, Cumulus 3 also known as MX once it was made available to users, was experimental and it had limited functionality, much less than was available in Cumulus 1. This made MX innovative, but unfriendly. | *Steve Loft wrote and developed Cumulus 1, 2, and finally MX, while he was in Scotland, he did move a few times, but most development happened on Sanday, hence '''Sandaysoft''' became his name for his creations, he did experiment with some non-weather software, but Cumulus stayed his main hobby. | ||
*Consequently, at that time, most Cumulus users were using Cumulus 1, and just those | *In 2015, Cumulus 3 (also initially known as MX, and 'MX' is what was adopted once it was made available to users), was experimental and it had limited functionality, much less than was available in Cumulus 1. This made MX innovative, but unfriendly. | ||
*Steve Loft started development of MX while he was still in full-time employment, but as retirement approached he worked fewer days per week | *Consequently, at that time, most Cumulus users were using Cumulus 1, and just those eager to take part in beta testing (perhaps because they wanted to move to Linux operating system) used MX. | ||
*Steve Loft started development of MX while he was still in full-time employment, but as retirement approached he worked fewer days per week. Consequently, he was faced with the question as to whether to spend his time on MX development, or to focus on spending time with his wife, Beth, exploring places. | |||
*When he fully retired, a life on the road beckoned, and they started travelling. Work on MX decreased, and work on Cumulus 1 was no longer possible, as he was limited to what his laptop and internet connection at stops could cope with. | *When he fully retired, a life on the road beckoned, and they started travelling. Work on MX decreased, and work on Cumulus 1 was no longer possible, as he was limited to what his laptop and internet connection at stops could cope with. | ||
*Various people offered to help him with MX if he was willing to make his source code available. Initially, Steve did not want anyone else to interfere with his creation | *Various people offered to help him with MX if he was willing to make his source code available. Initially, Steve was keen to protect his intellectual property. He did not want anyone else to interfere with his creation. | ||
*Steve Loft | *When he and his wife found a new home in France, there was no longer any doubt, the priorities changed in favour of a focus on his new life. Having decided to make the source code for MX available (he no longer had the development environment for editing Cumulus 1, and he had aborted Cumulus 2), Steve was able to forget about further development of MX. Indeed the [[Software|source code]] he released included various feature that were developed prior to the last MX release he made available. | ||
*Steve Loft was closing down his Sandaysoft.com host, so the software source, and release code, had to find a new home, as did this Wiki. SaratogaWX (Ken True) has taken over (see [[CumulusWiki:About|Cumulus Wiki: About]], and agreed to also the host source code files as they were at time of handover. | |||
*Some information was copied from the support forum to the new Wiki host, as at the time of Wiki transfer it was unclear whether the forum would remain available. | |||
*Sandaysoft.com also hosted the support forum. Freddie (Niall Hosiene) took over the hosting of the forum the month after Ken True took over Wiki. | |||
*The various people who had offered to help develop MX now were able to see the source code and decide whether they really did want to get involved. | *The various people who had offered to help develop MX now were able to see the source code and decide whether they really did want to get involved. | ||
*One programmer launched Cumulus 4, a new approach. Work continued on this for a while, but as far as I know it never made it into a working system, and I believe like Cumulus 2, it is abandoned. | *One programmer launched Cumulus 4, a new approach. Work continued on this for a while, but as far as I know it never made it into a working system, and I believe like Cumulus 2, it is abandoned. | ||
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It would be wrong not to repeat what Mark has said here - '''MX is still not bug free, there is a lot more to correct as well as all the enhancements to cope with new weather station hardware'''. | It would be wrong not to repeat what Mark has said here - '''MX is still not bug free, there is a lot more to correct as well as all the enhancements to cope with new weather station hardware'''. | ||
There is a page (created in October 2018) listing [[MX Issues|MX Issues to be resolved]], but I suspect it is out of date. If you look through the release announcements for | There is a page (created in October 2018) listing [[MX Issues|MX Issues to be resolved]], but I suspect it is out of date. If you look through the release announcements for 2019-21, yes there are a lot of new features being added, but almost every build also involves resolving bugs. | ||
== Restrictions on who can use MX == | == Restrictions on who can use MX == | ||
