One thing that might not be fully recognized is that not only is there an issue of learning the coding way a bit challenging from the start, is that 9 months, a year, or more later there’s a good possibility that you will need to re-learn it again. You figure it out sufficiently early on, got what you needed done, and then not touch it for a long time. So what you did figure out is largely forgotten by the time that you need to deal with it again.
I think those who are sometimes a bit flippant about “just learn YAML” are those who are elbow deep in it frequently, weekly, maybe even daily. A lot of HA users are not like that. After the initial flurry of setup and configuration, they then may very well be completely hands-off for many month long stretches. It is that kind of case in addition to the brand new users that needs to be considered when it comes to GUI implementations.
Now that the month of WTH is just about over I am axious to see what the Home Assistant team does with all the feedback from this thread. Hopefully they will publish a high level roadmap of what user interface changes they are going to tackle in 2025. Not looking for them to commit to detailed feature promises but it would be nice to see a general intent something like this:
January - Make sure there is a GUI alternative for every situation that currently requires you to drop into YAML view to use templating.
February - Make sure any object or element that exists in any dashboard card is accessible within the automation engine for use in automations and notifications.
March - Review the GUI interface of other major automation platforms and create parity functionality for any feature that is commonly provided in those systems to facilitate easy migration to Home Assistant.
April - Add more features for nested and recursive logic as well as reusable logic blocks (macros) to the automation engine so users can do more complex automations without needing to resort to coding. (ie more time devoted to working out logic and less time battling coding syntax)
May- Create a split screen view for editing automations that shows both the YAML and GUI views at the same time so you can see the real time impact of changes from one side on the other side. And of course remediate any situation where there is not currently a GUI equivalent for a YAML entry.
And so on… Hopefully we will see a roadmap similiar to this get published in the near future.
The thread has 20 votes and tons of arguing. I doubt anything will come out of this thread that already isn’t in motion. That’s why WTH was focused on “creating little things that bother you”. Not “Over arcing changes that aren’t pinpointed”.
I actually hope there isn’t.
And I would be very surprised if there was.
This thread has not given any real solutions to anything.
Many people has asked several times how to solve it but all the answers has been “just solve it”-type answers with nothing concrete.
Everything you do is something you must learn.
There is nothing you can do that you haven’t first learned.
So whatever the solution is, something must be learned by the user.
Sure some things can be harder than other, but a lot of people has managed so to say you need to be a rocket scientist or in some other way extraordinary smart is false.
You don’t even need to be a programmer to make it.
If I had a time I would go through all recent WTH to make some numbers. But general impression is, it really doesn’t make sense to invest time for even creating post like WTH. You may find following answers:
not gonna happen
we are short on developer - not gonna happen
it would require lot of work - not gonna happen
do it yourself different way
anyone who maintains HA must get programming skills
not gonna happen because we are focusing for gui-based maintenance
it’s not programming, it’s configuration of program executor, thus it’s not the problem
I could list more.
Am I wrong?
What’s the point of WTH if anything we ask is doomed by default.
If you disagree, why you even answering? for sake of arguing? let it be. If it cannot be changed improved it won’t anyway - without you trying to argue against OP
9 - discussions - “normal” wth.
1 - we tried, it’s not possible at the moment
1 - Probably could be done but it would require a whole rework.
1 - closed, about custom integration
1 - No not going to happen.
I really think you’re being a bit misleading here.
The point is NOT to implement anything you make a post about.
Home Assistant has largely been successful because the developers know how to minimize scope creep. That necessarily means rejecting ideas that are out-of-scope, or minimizing the addition of features that require massive reworks.
If the response you’ve gotten is that a number of your WTHs have been rejected, perhaps you have a misunderstanding of the scope of Home Assistant. That’s okay. Take it in stride and refine your future WTHs.
Note that I have read quite a few WTH subjects and seen many opinions being vented by other users but not by the Nabu Casa dev team.
if I, another random commenter or even some of the volunteers that moderate here, say something isn’t going to happen, doesn’t mean that is the dev teams ’ verdict.
Active forum members are just that. They do not represent the majority of users and not the developers either.
Of course, there’s way more wth in a month than can be fixed in a year, so most of it isn’t going to happen soon. Some of it gets fixed by the NC team, some by the community devs. Many things will probably not be priority to the NC team but they will merge it if someone makes the PR.
In september 2022 there was w WTH month and one feature I really wanted was multiple shopping/todo lists and it was fixed in 2023.11. So yeah you may have to wait for something to be implemented when it is hard or not a big priority (like other WTH got more votes), but the dev team listens to the whole WTH thing.
Yeah, this is it.
I’m OK if something won’t be implemented soon or at all. I’m even more OK if it will be eventually picked by devs.
What I don’t like about this edition of WTH is the number of disheartening responses.
Well, it’s an open community forum. If you propose something other members do not like to see implemented, they are free to voice their arguments, no?
Some of the discussions going on here remind me of other internet forums I spen(d/t) time on. About mountain biking for example. Endless discussions on ‘growing the sport’ VS ‘keeping it it real’. People telling others to learn some technique instead of demanding to dumb down the trail. It’s not specific to HA at all. I bet a whole bunch of sociology PhD thesis have been and or could be written on the dynamics of internet fora.
But how do you know your WTH had anything to do with it?
WTH Months are a trawl for ideas, that’s all. They’re certainly not some kind of democratic vote for features. Sit back and marvel at the things people do with Home Assistant.
Just don’t get disqureged, there are alot of opinions about HA, alot of people want something different from it. When you get a closed source program you just have to live with it, with open source you can get your opinion heard, but it does not mean that it will be considered. These guys have ben at it for 10 years, I think they more or less know what thay are dooing.
Look at it from their perspective, it is like in the NFL, do you go for it at the 35 yard line at 1 and 4th or do you kick a field gool? And keep in mind I’m a Bears fan and I live in Poland and had not been in the USA since 2002
@jackjourneyman - I do not know if it had to do anything, but the idea that I’ve voted for it and in several months later it’s done gives me hope
and I live in Poland and had not been in the USA since 2002 
