It has been a while since I've worked on OpenDAX. I guess about 6 months. I was playing around with some other things in that time. I'm still playing with them but I need to keep my head in this a little bit. I had to stare at the code for a while before I remembered what it all did. I'm glad that I have taken the time to write these blog entries too, since they remind of how I implemented some of this stuff and why.
I've decided that before I get too far along I need to add custom data types to the code. I think it'll be very important to get the data structures all ironed out before work begins on the HMI. I'm trying to convince a programmer at work to start working on the HMI. (I might call it the HDI - Human DAX Interface.) I still have no real interest in writing the HMI code, but I know that this project will not get anywhere without one. The HMI project will be larger and more complex than the server, the library and most of the core modules all put together. Once we have a functioning HMI, I think that people will start paying attention to the project and contributing.
Recently, events at work have convinced me that an Open Source SCADA / Control application is the way of the future. We have run into some serious limitations with a program that we are using and have gotten into "Vendor / Vendor finger pointing." If this were open source then we'd just dig in there and look at it. Of course if it were open source then it would be unlikely to have the kind of limitations that we are running into. I guess that is probably the main thing that has gotten me interested in working on the project again. I have started working on adding custom data types to the code and that is a pretty big job. I hope I can get it done in the next few weeks.