XTension is a control and monitor application for all types of process control, from home automation to the mid-scale factory. XTension provides a single, familiar and encouraging system where you can integrate all of your schedules, procedures, data collection and device control.
Much of the experience gained in the development and operation of NASA’s Space Shuttle Launch Processing System is incorporated into XTension. The LPS has been in daily use for over 19 years, serving more than 120,000 control and monitor points.
XTension uses the best of the MacOS standards to bring you a well organized and thoughtfully presented home automation agent. You can be sure that XTension will continue to honor these standards and attempt to follow new MacOS features as they evolve.
Rather than create another proprietary scripting language, XTension uses the MacOS standard AppleScript, which has an established grammar. Assertions of commitment by Apple promise that AppleScript will continue to grow with the MacOS. This means that XTension will also continue to grow without the need for continuous updates.
You may notice that XTension is both fast and efficient. It requires very little hard drive space and can in a memory partition of as little as 500KB. We think you will find this pleasing in this day of multi-megabyte applications.
Another issue is that of longevity. In that XTension will run on
any Macintosh* known as of March 1998, it is important that
XTension remain compatible with a wide variety of 'closet Macs'.
There are many Macs still running well after 12 or more years,
and it is likely that the ones we have today will last at least
that long.
Although many XTension users enjoy running on a fast Mac
with other applications, it is most common to see the whole
home automation process relegated to an old MacSE/30 or so
and just let it be.
Ten years from now, our G3's will probably be the 'closet Macs'
and you'll still be able to run XTension on them...
* The old Mac Portable is difficult with only 2MB of RAM...
