Dean Roddey
Senior Member
Charmed Quark Systems is proud to announce the 1.3.5 release of CQC (the Charmed Quark Controller), its software based control and automation system. CQC is the brains that supplement the brawn of your PC network, to create a powerful, secure, network distributed, highly visual, and highly robust system for management of hardware devices and software applications. With the addition of the needed ports (IR, serial, contact, etc...) to a general purpose PC, CQC can provide you with control and automation services on par with far more expensive traditional automation systems. Combined with its strong home theater front end services, which make excellent use of the strengths of PC graphics, CQC is a one stop shopping system that often requires the manual integration of three or more packages in competing products. CQC supports the Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Server family of operating systems, with others coming.
Version 1.3.5 is a very substantial upgrade of 1.3.4, despite being a 'dot dot' release, because many of the improvements are under the hood and in visual aspects of the system, not in fundamental changes to the way the system operates. So though much work was done, and the tools are better looking, slicker, and far more powerful than before, there won't be any major suprises in this release.
The primary visible improvements are in the user interface system, and its ability to manage images and to make the development of user interfaces simpler and easier.
In the remainder of this document some screen shots will be provided. These are of the interfaces created for current CQC demo systems. Please note that there is nothing, visually or functionality, about these images that is intrinsic to CQC. They were created using the CQC interface designer, using arbitrary images chosen for their asethetics and the functionality provided is purely a matter of design, so they are not 'skins' providing alternate looks for a fixed set of functionality, nor are you in any way limited to a particular visual style.
Also note that they are pretty significantly reduced in size and quality in order to avoid download overhead
What's New Overview
---------------------------------------
This section will briefly introduce the major new features in this version, some of which will be discussed in more detail later in this document.
Click here for a full sized version
User Interface Improvements
---------------------------------------
Significant work was done on the user interface system in this release. This section will discuss some of these changes, and provide some more example interfaces, to help graphically demonstrate the new features.
Note that the example interfaces displayed here use a scheme commonly employed in CQC, which is to have a single main interface, and to have a set of buttons that load up various smaller interfaces into a central area. All the buttons in the Options section to the right load up 'overlays', which are just smaller interfaces, into the central area of the main image. This both saves time by allowing you to provide common functionality once, and allows for more flexibility in reuse of sets of overlays that provide access to common types of functionality
Click here for a full sized version
Image Management
Previously, CQC could only import bitmaps, and that was also it's repository format. In this version, it also supports PNG images and that is now the repository format. PNG is far more flexible and powerful than raw bitmaps, and importantly they support 'alpha transparency' which means that each individual pixel can blend into the background differently. You can use this to create very slick looking interfaces. A nice new set of alpha based images is included in this release as well, to help you get started. Another benefit is that they are compressed but lossless. So they reduce load times but can be re-edited without compounding compression artifacts as would happen with JPEGs.
The new image import dialog allows you to do high quality scaling of images you are importing, as well as flip them horizontally and vertically and adjust the image's gamma level. And, you can now go back and edit your images in the repository, not just import a new version of the image over the old one.
Interface Editor
The user interface editor is far more powerful in this version. It worked quite well before, but lacked a lot of 'conveniences' that make the difference between getting the job done and getting it done with some style and in a fraction of the time. You can now select multiple widgets (via shift-click or lasso style) and drag them, size them up or down, move them, delete them, apply attributes to them, align them horziontally or vertically (and optionally space them out in the process), and so forth. This feature alone can reduce the work required to create a slick looking interface by orders of magnitude.
You can also now cut and paste widget attributes, and selectively paste only those you want. This allows you to create or modify one widget, and then selectively apply some of it's look to other widgets (and you can select them all at once and apply them.)
There is also now 'theme' support so that you can select a theme and it will automatically supply initial settings for the widgets you add to your interface, so that you end up with a nice, consistent look without having to make all those decisions yourself.
Installer
The CQC installer was completely reworked and now is very professional looking and slick, and considerably smarter under the hood. This in and of itself is nice, but these changes are also preliminary to some very exciting new features that will arrive in the installer in the next release.
Under the Hood
Many improvements were made under the hood in this release. You won't see them directly, but they are there and they make CQC more robust, faster, and more flexible. There is always a great pressure on companies to put out visible features to the detriment of the fundamental architecture, but we believe that automation systems must be stable and robust first and foremost, because no number of flakey features are acceptable in this type of product. So we put in a lot of time reworking important architectural features to create a better product. It won't jump out at you, but you will benefit from them as a user of CQC.
Some other under the hood work is in preperation for upcoming features in the next release. There will be some very exciting new features in our next release, which will bring CQC's powerful automation architecture into the media management world, and into the world of smaller hand held devices.
What's Available
---------------------------------------
CQC consists of a 'base package' and a number of optional packages. The base package provides all that most folks will need, though in some cases they might want to pick up one or two optional packages. If you need them all, there is a discount for buying a full system with all options.
The base package provides the following broad features:
Click here for a full sized version
Give it a Try
---------------------------------------
CQC is available for use in trial mode for 30 days, without any encumberances. So you can fully evaluate it for a month without commitment. If you decide to buy at any time within the trial period, you can convert your existing trial system into a fully licensed system without any interruptions.
CQC is also safe to try. It does not install any system files, or modify your configuration in any way except to create some start menu items and to create a small registry entry. It also creates a service, but all of the files that service uses are within the CQC directory. So if you decide not to commit, just use the uninstaller and it can be completely removed without any danger of destabilization of your system.
So feel free to give it a try and see if suits your needs. CQC provides a lot of functionality, all under one roof, where it can be managed and configured as a whole, and where the pieces are designed from day one to work together seamlessly and will continue to do so into the future. You don't have to master multiple systems and tie them together yourself, and hope that they do not diverge at some point, leaving you in the lurch, nor do you have to worry about the security of multiple systems not designed to provide comprehensive built in, user based security.
Click here for a full sized version
CQC can adapt to scenarios from a locked down, kiosk mode system, up to a "PC based and not ashamed of it" full home network in which every machine is a CQC node, so it is applicable to many sorts of control system topology and usage patterns, and can change easily over time because of the flexible nature of software based systems.
CQC is licensed on a network basis. So the price is basically for a license to run the 'master server' on one machine. You can then run the other client and server components on other machines in your network as desired. So the price compared to some other options is more competative than it might seem once you move off a single machine configuration.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected], or you can register on the CQC support forums and join the growing community of CQC users, many of whom can provide you with help and practical experience.
BTW, with this new release we are now our new corporate identity with new logo and slightly modified name. It actually was officially done a while back, but hasn't actually show up visually until the new web site design was deployed.
Click here for a full sized version
Version 1.3.5 is a very substantial upgrade of 1.3.4, despite being a 'dot dot' release, because many of the improvements are under the hood and in visual aspects of the system, not in fundamental changes to the way the system operates. So though much work was done, and the tools are better looking, slicker, and far more powerful than before, there won't be any major suprises in this release.
The primary visible improvements are in the user interface system, and its ability to manage images and to make the development of user interfaces simpler and easier.
In the remainder of this document some screen shots will be provided. These are of the interfaces created for current CQC demo systems. Please note that there is nothing, visually or functionality, about these images that is intrinsic to CQC. They were created using the CQC interface designer, using arbitrary images chosen for their asethetics and the functionality provided is purely a matter of design, so they are not 'skins' providing alternate looks for a fixed set of functionality, nor are you in any way limited to a particular visual style.
Also note that they are pretty significantly reduced in size and quality in order to avoid download overhead
What's New Overview
---------------------------------------
This section will briefly introduce the major new features in this version, some of which will be discussed in more detail later in this document.
- Interface System. Huge improvements have been made in the user interface system. The interface designer has many more conveniences to help you create and edit user interfaces, such as multiple selection actions, selective attribute pasting, snap to grid, auto-alignment tools, and theme support.
- Image Repository. The CQC image repository was massively reworked. The biggest change is that PNG files are now supported and that is the new repository format. This allows you to bring very slick alpha transparency based images into your user interfaces. And a nice new set of images are in this release, which you can use in your interfaces.
- Network Addressing Scheme. CQC's underlying network model was changed so that it's Object Request Broker now publishes node names instead of addresses, which makes CQC much more flexible and simplified it considerably internally in many places.
- Web Site/Documenation. The entire Charmed Quark web site was redesigned from the ground up, to make it easier to understand and navigate. The technical documentation was largely moved into separate downloadable documents.
- Installer. The CQC installer was completely reworked to make it more attractive and a lot smarter. Some of this was preperatory to even bigger changes in the next release but you'll definitely notice now much nicer it is.
- Device Drivers. New drivers are available for myHTPC, TheaterTek 2.0, Meridian 861, and SageTV. And updates were made to the Lexicon MC-12 and DirecTV set top box.
Click here for a full sized version
User Interface Improvements
---------------------------------------
Significant work was done on the user interface system in this release. This section will discuss some of these changes, and provide some more example interfaces, to help graphically demonstrate the new features.
Note that the example interfaces displayed here use a scheme commonly employed in CQC, which is to have a single main interface, and to have a set of buttons that load up various smaller interfaces into a central area. All the buttons in the Options section to the right load up 'overlays', which are just smaller interfaces, into the central area of the main image. This both saves time by allowing you to provide common functionality once, and allows for more flexibility in reuse of sets of overlays that provide access to common types of functionality
Click here for a full sized version
Image Management
Previously, CQC could only import bitmaps, and that was also it's repository format. In this version, it also supports PNG images and that is now the repository format. PNG is far more flexible and powerful than raw bitmaps, and importantly they support 'alpha transparency' which means that each individual pixel can blend into the background differently. You can use this to create very slick looking interfaces. A nice new set of alpha based images is included in this release as well, to help you get started. Another benefit is that they are compressed but lossless. So they reduce load times but can be re-edited without compounding compression artifacts as would happen with JPEGs.
The new image import dialog allows you to do high quality scaling of images you are importing, as well as flip them horizontally and vertically and adjust the image's gamma level. And, you can now go back and edit your images in the repository, not just import a new version of the image over the old one.
Interface Editor
The user interface editor is far more powerful in this version. It worked quite well before, but lacked a lot of 'conveniences' that make the difference between getting the job done and getting it done with some style and in a fraction of the time. You can now select multiple widgets (via shift-click or lasso style) and drag them, size them up or down, move them, delete them, apply attributes to them, align them horziontally or vertically (and optionally space them out in the process), and so forth. This feature alone can reduce the work required to create a slick looking interface by orders of magnitude.
You can also now cut and paste widget attributes, and selectively paste only those you want. This allows you to create or modify one widget, and then selectively apply some of it's look to other widgets (and you can select them all at once and apply them.)
There is also now 'theme' support so that you can select a theme and it will automatically supply initial settings for the widgets you add to your interface, so that you end up with a nice, consistent look without having to make all those decisions yourself.
Installer
The CQC installer was completely reworked and now is very professional looking and slick, and considerably smarter under the hood. This in and of itself is nice, but these changes are also preliminary to some very exciting new features that will arrive in the installer in the next release.
Under the Hood
Many improvements were made under the hood in this release. You won't see them directly, but they are there and they make CQC more robust, faster, and more flexible. There is always a great pressure on companies to put out visible features to the detriment of the fundamental architecture, but we believe that automation systems must be stable and robust first and foremost, because no number of flakey features are acceptable in this type of product. So we put in a lot of time reworking important architectural features to create a better product. It won't jump out at you, but you will benefit from them as a user of CQC.
Some other under the hood work is in preperation for upcoming features in the next release. There will be some very exciting new features in our next release, which will bring CQC's powerful automation architecture into the media management world, and into the world of smaller hand held devices.
What's Available
---------------------------------------
CQC consists of a 'base package' and a number of optional packages. The base package provides all that most folks will need, though in some cases they might want to pick up one or two optional packages. If you need them all, there is a discount for buying a full system with all options.
The base package provides the following broad features:
- Network distributed front and back end control architecture
- User drawn interface development and deployment tools
- IR control
- X-10 control
- Serial and socket device control
- Macro development and deployment tools
- Device driver development and deployment tools (what might be called 'plug ins' in some systems)
- Security and user management
- Scheduled Events Server. Allows you to schedule events to occur at regular intervals, particular times of the day, particular days of the week, etc...
- Application Control. If you want to control other applications as though they were devices, then you need to get the application control system. It allows applications to be managed via standard CQC device drivers, so that they integrate cleanly into the CQC system (within the natural limits imposed by the fact that applications are often not designed to be controlled.)
- XLM Gateway Server. Provides a simple XML over Sockets interface into the CQC system, to support third party clients.
Click here for a full sized version
Give it a Try
---------------------------------------
CQC is available for use in trial mode for 30 days, without any encumberances. So you can fully evaluate it for a month without commitment. If you decide to buy at any time within the trial period, you can convert your existing trial system into a fully licensed system without any interruptions.
CQC is also safe to try. It does not install any system files, or modify your configuration in any way except to create some start menu items and to create a small registry entry. It also creates a service, but all of the files that service uses are within the CQC directory. So if you decide not to commit, just use the uninstaller and it can be completely removed without any danger of destabilization of your system.
So feel free to give it a try and see if suits your needs. CQC provides a lot of functionality, all under one roof, where it can be managed and configured as a whole, and where the pieces are designed from day one to work together seamlessly and will continue to do so into the future. You don't have to master multiple systems and tie them together yourself, and hope that they do not diverge at some point, leaving you in the lurch, nor do you have to worry about the security of multiple systems not designed to provide comprehensive built in, user based security.
Click here for a full sized version
CQC can adapt to scenarios from a locked down, kiosk mode system, up to a "PC based and not ashamed of it" full home network in which every machine is a CQC node, so it is applicable to many sorts of control system topology and usage patterns, and can change easily over time because of the flexible nature of software based systems.
CQC is licensed on a network basis. So the price is basically for a license to run the 'master server' on one machine. You can then run the other client and server components on other machines in your network as desired. So the price compared to some other options is more competative than it might seem once you move off a single machine configuration.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected], or you can register on the CQC support forums and join the growing community of CQC users, many of whom can provide you with help and practical experience.
BTW, with this new release we are now our new corporate identity with new logo and slightly modified name. It actually was officially done a while back, but hasn't actually show up visually until the new web site design was deployed.
Click here for a full sized version
