Who is RCS Programming? RCS Programming is a privately owned, Independent business founded in 1996 by John S. Rule...who has been programming control systems professionally for almost 20 years. RCS Programming was one of the first companies to develop a network based PC control solution, and continues to innovate with technologies that can only be found in their products. RCS has no commercial affiliations or agendas other than making great control products! RCS began with the single objective to provide innovative solutions to existing problems. The combined engineering skills and field experience of the company provide insight into many issues for Integrated Systems control, as well as HCI (human computer interaction) in general. Programming is only one aspect of an Integrated System, and RCS believes that formal knowledge in programming languages, engineering, HCI, design, and electronics is what sets RCS apart. It was this insight and formal knowledge that inspired RCS to develop a new product...something that would solve problems. As a result, in 2000 RCS developed the 'XSYS Controller' and 'Run Time Editor' to give you many of the industry standard features you have come to know, while introducing new features. New features that assist in overcoming many of the obstacles that are involved with designing and testing a control system environment: Run Time: Run Time means no compiling. Yes, you read that right...no compiling! Changes are made 'on the fly'...change that IR function, and press the button to test it. There is no need to 'upload' to test anything, Run Time is also synonymous with 'Real Time'. That also means you do not have to compile and upload to any device...ever again! You literally can design and implement a control interface in a matter of minutes! Built in Editor: A major problem with existing control systems programming is keeping track of current programming files (or getting the editable source code from the author!). When you have an RTE program running, you have the current program...not just the 'panel' files, but the code as well! Everything is 'embedded' into your application as you design it. The single file that represents your project contains ALL data you need for that project, and can be emailed to and from a client as a complete representation of the running program. On-Line Debugger: Even the best programmers in the world debug...so we gave you the best debugger in the world! Well, maybe not the best, but certainly the most convenient. You can run the debugger without any hardware attached! What this means, is that you can debug a program anywhere! Most control system editors require that you be attached to their hardware to get ANY debugging accomplished. With the RTE debugger, you can monitor all of the logic of your code because the RTE engine IS the hardware...in software! You can test all logic (variables), IR, RS232 strings, touch panel 'flow', etc. No 'Join' numbers: Buttons and objects maintain their numbers internally if you need them, but you typically won't need them...and even then, you are not responsible for assigning (or maintaining) them! Never worry about assigning another number...ever again! No Touch Panel Required: This may not have been obvious, but this can be a software only solution. Whether you want to control NET devices that are already on a network, or just control your existing system that has a network interface, you only need the RTE software. That can be quite a cost difference between a [censored] control system and an XSYS Control System! The software is designed to be perfectly compatible with the touch panel 'paradigm'...but you are not limited to this. You can make your host computer (and touch screen monitor) look and feel just like a touch panel control system, or you can choose the convenience of running your control 'application' in a window. Cross Platform: That's right. We have engines for just about any hardware or OS you can throw at us: Windows XP Windows Vista Mac OSX Linux (handheld/wireless devices too!) And since the hardware and software are based on a native network control protocol, you can do Internet control in a much better (faster!) way than browser based technologies. What is XSYS? For RCS, XSYS stands for "Excellent System"! It is also generally referred to as an "External System" (external to the control hardware). This is a full featured control system and user interface design environment with several unique methods that were first developed by John Rule in 1991. RCS is also the first in innovation for features like IR waveform editing and manipulation, Pronto Hex code importing, 'Run Time' editing, runtime testing/debugging, and much more... The architecture is also very 'open', and much of the Run Time Editor itself was created with the same engine that you will be using!. There is a large supportive community for the scripting language, and it is the most programmer friendly language there is! We are confident that you will discover this and more as you investigate the details of the RCS Programming technologies. In Conclusion: The products you find here were developed to solve our own real world problems, and have been field tested quite extensively. Some of the solutions are so unique they are patent pending. This is, however, one of the most 'open' architectures you will find, and that reason alone will encourage new and innovative ideas from users all over the world. We hope you find your solution here...if you don't, send us an email or call. Maybe we can find it for you! RCS Programming [Registered Trademarks] rcsprogramming.com xsyscontroller.com [Published 2002] "Runtime method of user interface design and device control"