UI is lagging behind

Month of "What the heck?!"
1

Almost everytime I ask in the forums about anything people point me to Yaml file edits, like just add this, and I dont know what to do with it.
If i manage to get to the Yaml file I would still not know where in the existing file to dump the surgested code.
So what am I asking here, it’s pretty basic but probably not easy:

  1. Improve the UI, to support simple things like a random off time for a switch in an automation.
  2. Make a manual or youtube videos explaining things like the use of the yaml file, everybody new needs to get educated in order to use HA. You cant see the yaml file by default… in order to switch things on and of its an automation, super basic stuff that I had and still have a hard time getting my head around. I surgest making a video tortural going from scratch to a full instalation with a nice display that shows surveillance video and what not. Keep adding to that build, the learning curve is super steep and I am sorry to say but I am not finding you current help stuff to much help. (Its been 6 months since my last check of the getting started stuff.)
  3. And include home simulation in HA in a way that its playing back logg files from selected lights, from say the last 7 days and then just looping those 7 days until simulation is turnede off. Its also a yaml option to get it working but with many problems, as far as I can tell…
2

Not everything that you do “in YAML” means you need to go edit a configuration file.

E.g. in automations, you can switch any individual element to “yaml-mode” to view/edit the yaml for just that part of the code, and everything still remains in the UI, you don’t need to go find any config files.

I’m not sure what “random off time for a switch in an automation” means, but I’m pretty sure you can still do it in the automation editor without going to config files.

3

I guess he means calculating a wait time for switching off a switch that includes a pseudorandom number generated? Which AFAIK in HA requires templating in a language that according to its own documentation “allows you to calculate with values. This is rarely useful in templates but exists for completeness’ sake.”
I agree that is a bit of a steep ask for people with no background in coding or even in technology.

However, this WTH is pretty broad and the direction it asks for (more available in GUI, less mandatory YAML, more friendly UI for non-technical people) is a clearly stated goal of the dev team. So it’s probably more efficient to ask for very specific parts of the interface that one would like to see tackled first.