Re: [Perl-workflow-devel] Using Workflow for managing home automation

[Sebastian S. <seb...@go...>]

I am maybe not so good at theoratical IT therefore it might be that I am
confused and try to use this for an application where it does not fit. Why
do I think I need path-finding-stuff?

Lets say i have states a,b,c and d and actions AtoB, BtoC, CtoD and DtoA.

The "system" is in state a. Now the user decides, it shall be in state d.
>From a there is only b reachable through action AtoB. I want that the
system goes automatically to state d through more than one action without
further user input.

Application example: The user decides he wants to liste to radio music in
the living room. (User input "set LR music radio") (just a stupid example)

Now several things have to happen, assuming everything is switched off. The
PC in the living room (yes!) has to be switched on, it has to boot, the
sucessful boot needs to be detected after a certain amount of time (if
nothing goes wrong) then the "radio listening application" has to be
startet, etc. In reallity in my home it is even more complex, becuase I
need to start up the "play music stream" application on my music server,
which also might be switched off completely, etc.

So many tasks need to be completed automatically. Which ones, depends on
the state of all systems before the user input.

I am not so good in petri nets but I will look into this and maybe this is
a better model for what I want to happen in my house. Thank you for this
hint!