With the current state of AV programming, you get to work with tools that are decades old. I can experiment with new languages and new frameworks.
#HOW TO GET CRESTRON SIMPL WINDOWS FULL#
When I start a new project I get full control of my tech stack. You want to know why you can’t find any AV programmers? Because no one wants to work in an environment where they’re given obsolete and proprietary tools, which are locked to expensive hardware, and can only be acquired by dealers. See related rePLAY 2021: Day 3 - Touchdown! Apple has repeatedly disabled Java on OS X. Language features aren’t my only concern either: Java 1.6 was so notoriously insecure that Java applets are now disabled by default on all major browsers. I didn’t even know that there was a version of Java without generics.
Every Java project I have ever worked on has made liberal use of enums and generics. The feature gap between Java 1.4 and 1.8 is huge. This is ridiculous.Įven if that wasn’t so bad, you’re locked to Java 1.4, which is more than 13 years old, and hasn’t been supported by Oracle since 2008. If you’re an AMX programmer, you don’t get to choose your IDE your only choice is one that is 10 years old. When I write Java, I use Intellij IDEA, which is arguably the best IDE on the market. It runs on Eclipse 3.1.0 to 3.1.2, which are also 10 years old and absolutely terrible (I know from experience). The latest release of Cafe Duet was in 2005, 10 years ago. In order to use Java with AMX, you need to purchase a copy of Cafe Duet, a set of extensions for the Eclipse Java IDE. This is ridiculous.Īnd then there’s Java with AMX, which is even worse. AV programmers are missing out on some seriously great features: optional parameters, named arguments, async programming (which is super useful in AV), the Safe Navigation Operator and more. With Visual Studio 2008 you get to use C# version 3.0, the most recent version being 6.0. You see with SIMPL Sharp, you’re locked into Visual Studio 2008, which means when SIMPL Sharp was released it was already obsolete - Visual Studio 2010 had already been out for a year. The problem with SIMPL Sharp is with the supported version of C#. Unfortunately for AV programmers, the implementations supported by the manufacturers are terribly outdated.Ĭrestron launched C# support with its 3-Series line of processors, the first of which was released in 2011. Crestron supports C# via SIMPL Sharp, and AMX supports Java - two very open, very useful languages. You don’t have to use these proprietary languages though. Tools like npm or pip make installing third-party libraries a breeze. If I need to accomplish something, there is probably a library to help me. Contrast this to more open languages such as JavaScript or Python, where all of my problems can be solved with StackOverflow, or by the countless blogs written by kind strangers on the Internet. It’s also nearly impossible to find any good third-party frameworks or tools. Due to their proprietary nature, the main source for support is on the developer support forums. SIMPL+ is a C-like language while NetLinx is a bit more Java-esque, but both are plagued with the same problems.
#HOW TO GET CRESTRON SIMPL WINDOWS SOFTWARE#
Due to SIMPL’s nature as a visual language it is not compatible with version control software like Git or Subversion, and makes it difficult to work in teams. SIMPL can get some jobs done, but is often inadequate for complex jobs. SIMPL isn’t so much of a programming language as it is a visual tool that allows you to build logic for your processors.
Crestron has SIMPL and SIMPL+ and AMX has Netlinx. Let’s start with the proprietary languages. Within the two platforms you have two options: proprietary languages created by the manufacturer, or a supported open language that can run on their hardware. There are other platforms too, but to keep this article short I’ll be talking mostly about the Crestron and AMX platforms. Today, I am going to talk about the biggest reason there is a shortage of quality AV programmers: sub-par tools.įor AV programmers there are two main platforms, Crestron and AMX. In my previous post, The AV Industry Needs to Open Up, I talked about two reasons why it is difficult to become an AV programmer - proprietary hardware and certifications.
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