Thanks for your reply Ray!
While I think it would make the most sense to have arbitrary zone ordering per program, for my own needs I will be perfectly happy with ordering by zone name.
“001 front lawn”
“002 back lawn”
“003 side lawn”
etc.
That’ll work just fine.
In my own use I don’t see much need to re-order in different programs — mostly I just omit certain zones in different programs, e.g. for mowing days.
While I appreciate that control via the network API would also allow arbitrary programs and ordering, my current thoughts are that I don’t want anything in the chain of control that doesn’t absolutely have to be there for regular operation. Maybe if there were native HomeKit integration I might risk it, but even there I’m happier having stand-alone embedded systems driving critical infrastructure than having to depend on my AppleTV to run the show.
The reason traditional sprinkler controllers don’t allow arbitrary ordering of zone is because their designers are hardware-first engineers concerned about getting costs as low as possible. I once turned down work on an embedded system that cost several thousand dollars per unit because they wouldn’t spend more than $0.25 on the microcontroller for it. Hardware designers also don’t think like software people at all — software is an annoying necessity to them for more modern low-cost hardware design, and besides they’ve traditionally relied on physical switches and knobs for input controls so programming different ordering would likely require more switches and knobs (or be even more convoluted than their existing horrendously ugly control interfaces), and so would require even more costly hardware. Also since traditional sprinkler controllers are not typically remotely controlled you have to go to the controller anyway to change a program, and so re-wiring is only a screwdriver away. I had some hopes for the high-end Hunter HCC systems with WiFi control, but I can’t get a firm answer from them, and if I were going to spend several thousands of dollars upgrading my system I need to know it’ll do exactly what I want and more well ahead of time, without needing internet access to their cloud! All the other so-called “smart” irrigation controllers are abominations that seem like they were designed 20 years ago.
As for the code, sorry I just don’t touch C++, no matter how few C++ features it purports to contain. I have over 40 years of C programming experience and I’m firmly in the anti-C++ camp.
For the record I’m wanting to replace an old Irritrol 24-zone and a Hydro-Rain 9-zone, with only one zone each unused, integrating them all into one controller. A little SoC board, like an RPi or BeagleBoard, with an add-on relay controller board, while highly flexible is far too ad-hoc for me, and I don’t want to do the software from scratch either, so something like OpenSprinkler is highly appealing, provided I can bend it to do things the way I want.