Python easter egg, which contains a lot of wisdom, now that we're touching on development strategies:

>>> import this
The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!

1 minute ago, plonkster said:

Yeah, I had to teach you about YAGNI just yesterday :-)

(everyone else, YFGI. That's short for "just bloody google it".)

I Google EVERYTHING ... all about efficiency, as I teach my kids. Most things you Google, other things you learn quickly to go to the experts and ask. 

2 minutes ago, plonkster said:

Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.

Sooo true ...

One caveat: Develop the special cases as the norm, then the norm does not need to be altered for special cases. 

26 minutes ago, plonkster said:

Yeah, same here. All you windows junkies refused to cooperate :-P

Plonkster ... I could not refuse ... yes, we did not conform, for to have done in Python would have take months, if not YEARS. 

Python development apparently needs a lot of spare time. Windows on the other hand does not. 

26 minutes ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Python development apparently needs a lot of spare time. Windows on the other hand does not. 

LOL. If you put me on a windows machine I am so lost that it will take days to get anything done. My problem at the moment is that work and being a daddy gets in the way of doing development on this most worthy of projects. My attempts at getting others hooked (even sending one of them hardware) failed :-P

On a more serious note though: I am extremely grateful for the easter weekend access to your morningstar and BMV. If I had to buy all the hardware myself I'd never get anywhere. I mean, I already succeed in not getting anywhere, I'd probably get nowhere :-)

Edit: By the second half of May, the current sprint-drive at work will be over, and maybe I can put some time into it again.

Just now, plonkster said:

On a more serious note though: I am extremely grateful for the easter weekend access to your morningstar and BMV. If I had to buy all the hardware myself I'd never get anywhere. I mean, I already succeed in not getting anywhere, I'd probably get nowhere :-)

If you need access again, let me know and I will make it so. Preferably before I start recording officially, but even after that, I owe you. 

And Plonkster, if ever you need new Trojans, chat to me. I may have a connection who can make a plan for when you need some one day. 

For that Pi came in VERY handy at the right moment in time! If it was not for that one, I would not now have 3 in total. Pi, 2B and a 3B.

 

How do you get "bloody" from a "F" Plonky ???

7 minutes ago, jdp said:

How do you get "bloody" from a "F" Plonky ???

Use your imagination :-)

Hint: In the same way HKGK is short for "Hier kom groot moeilikheid".

8 minutes ago, jdp said:

How do you get "bloody" from a "F" Plonky ???

HKGK is short for "Hier kom groot moeilikheid".

Python. 

1 hour ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

I had not choice but to do my own thing JDP. 

Neither did I, nothing else available for the infinis. 

1 minute ago, superdiy said:

Neither did I, nothing else available for the infinis. 

SuperDIY, would you be open to share the info you have developed with us, do not want to go and Google if you have already dunnit, so that we can add it to our reader?

I always have great fun when chatting about development to the dudes at the Meraka Institute http://www.csir.co.za/meraka/

They are heavy focused on open source software. I believe you use the correct tool for the job. If it works use it. Problem I have with most open source projects are they are normally started by some developer who is doing it for a year end project for his or her studies. And then that is where it stops. No more forward movement. You are left to sort it out your self. Now that is fine if you are a hacker and build things your self, but in a corporate environment we don't get exited if we use  nano or vi and type up 5000 lines of code to get one text box on the screen. We want to use the text box. Its is all about functional solutions and the support you get from it. And that is where most opes source projects make their money, in the support of it. I enjoy coding with Python. My new controllers run Python and I do a lot with it, but wow is it a pain to do GUI development using it. It feels like I am back in the 80 using Cobol to do GUI screens.

4 minutes ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

SuperDIY, would you be open to share the info you have developed with us, do not want to go and Google if you have already dunnit, so that we can add it to our reader?

Yes, sure, I'll give you those sections of the code, but I'm definitely not going to put it in a nice document. 

Oh, by the way, in this case google was not of much help except for one doc containing only 30 query statements and only 16 commands for the infini 3K - that covers about half of it. Nothing at all for the 5K or 10K models... 

Edited April 12, 201610 yr by superdiy

Dudes I am saying for the "same type" of inverter. I am not saying don't build it if you don't have anything. But I guess that is South Africa for you. We can not agree on anything in life. If 3 of us get stranded on a island in about 2 weeks time you will have 3 different churches and 7 different political parties and each using another development language to code his own solar project.

14 minutes ago, jdp said:

Dudes I am saying for the "same type" of inverter. I am not saying don't build it if you don't have anything. But I guess that is South Africa for you. We can not agree on anything in life. If 3 of us get stranded on a island in about 2 weeks time you will have 3 different churches and 7 different political parties and each using another development language to code his own solar project.

My version: 5 Afrikaners around a table. You will soon have 6 political parties and 7 Churches. 
But the MOMENT you tick one or all of them off, and they agree on that, you will have that '3rd Boer war'.  

SAFFA's have genes that came from all over the world from people who could not agree to what they had or how they where governed ... so they picked themselves and their families up, left and came here. Today we are stuck with all those hardegat gene's. 

16 minutes ago, jdp said:

but wow is it a pain to do GUI development

Someone in the office said to look at Kivy.

Last time you asked me about it, I said PyQT simply because that's what we use on this project. I have to tell you though that I am not at all fond of Qt. Not even a little bit. The Python bindings are terribly non-pythonic in the way they work, it mirrors the C++ framework. Which is fine if you know and/or like QT :-)

9 minutes ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

SAFFA's have genes that came from all over the world from people who could not agree to what they had or how they where governed

At least the SAFFA's sort of came here more or less under their own volition. Unlike the Australians :-P

26 minutes ago, superdiy said:

give you those sections of the code

YES, no docs please. Code is better.

And once we have done it, MAY we impose and ask that you momentarily install the software, connect the device, that we can confirm that we did it right, data is coming in?

54 minutes ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

YES, no docs please. Code is better.

And once we have done it, MAY we impose and ask that you momentarily install the software, connect the device, that we can confirm that we did it right, data is coming in?

It depends. I only run Windows XP on the PC connected to my inverter - no internet connection either and no serial cable.  Guess we can make a plan.

4 hours ago, plonkster said:

Someone in the office said to look at Kivy.

Last time you asked me about it, I said PyQT simply because that's what we use on this project. I have to tell you though that I am not at all fond of Qt. Not even a little bit. The Python bindings are terribly non-pythonic in the way they work, it mirrors the C++ framework. Which is fine if you know and/or like QT :-)

Mmm had a look at it. It is based on OpenGL. OpenGL does not work over VNC or any remote desktop for the Pi. So I wont be able to support the app remotely and that is a showstopper for me. so far Lazarus is winning the GUI battle on the Pi as it works very well and is simple to use. I should have written AICC in it. Wait a minute ...........

1 hour ago, jdp said:

OpenGL does not work over VNC or any remote desktop for the Pi. So I wont be able to support the app remotely and that is a showstopper for me. so far Lazarus is winning the GUI battle on the Pi as it works very well and is simple to use. I should have written AICC in it.

I forgot ... who was it again that said we should pool resources and work together and not pull in all directions? 

TTT I started development first so not sure what you are saying

8 hours ago, plonkster said:

At least the SAFFA's sort of came here more or less under their own volition. Unlike the Australians :-P

I was in Cologne at a youth hostel and there was an Australian getting under my skin. A Scot noticed this and as soon as the Australian was out of earshot the Scot said to me in a broad Glaswegian accent "Nevermind the Australians, all their bloodlines have been selected by the finest English judges". (Apologies to Coulomb but I must admit you fellow countryman was behaving like an arse). 

Ok, Energy hasn't implemented yet because we can't seem to make up our minds:

We need to make the first move...

The suggestion is firstly a section called Software, below that we need a section breakdown...

Option 1a: Software by Name/Type (AICC/SolarMon/WebMon/SolarPi/EnergyMon/USBHDI +++++)
Option 1b: By Invertor Type (Axpert/Infini ++++++)
Option 1c: By OS (Windows/Mac/Linux/Pi +++++)

So lets start there, I suggest option 1a (by software) since there is always a possibility that a particular bit of software can work on multiple platforms (OS'es) and on multiple invertors/equipment... Lets get this off the ground.
 

1 hour ago, KLEVA said:

Ok, Energy hasn't implemented yet because we can't seem to make up our minds:

We need to make the first move...

The suggestion is firstly a section called Software, below that we need a section breakdown...

Option 1a: Software by Name/Type (AICC/SolarMon/WebMon/SolarPi/EnergyMon/USBHDI +++++)
Option 1b: By Invertor Type (Axpert/Infini ++++++)
Option 1c: By OS (Windows/Mac/Linux/Pi +++++)

So lets start there, I suggest option 1a (by software) since there is always a possibility that a particular bit of software can work on multiple platforms (OS'es) and on multiple invertors/equipment... Lets get this off the ground.
 

Hahaha, very true! Per inverter brand or per language?  Tis is the question.