From trying to put together the tool chain in 1.XX to fighting the configuration in 2.X with multiple interfaces, mix of database and config files… Everytime I have to work with openhab it’s a bad day.
30 Year developer (Electrical Engineer), assembly to android and everything in-between.
Welcome
Thank you for the warning to stay away from the ancient openHAB 1.x. 
If you wish assistance with OH2, please learn from this thread.
How to ask a good question / Help Us Help You - Tutorials & Examples - openHAB Community
Welcome too,
if it is a bad day for you, your stop doing it. So what is your point? That you did not contribute to openhab and help to make it better? That thing are not working in the way you like it? That just want to complain about openhab? That you have some questions your are not asking and therefor getting no anwser?
To be honest: Your post is not the expected one for a first post. Here most people are willing to help from same repetitive questioens over and over to very complex question with examples to step by step help. And this covers not only openhab it covers from my experience oepnhabian, grafana, influx, … too.
So a very warm welcome in the community.
Welcome Chris,
we all have bad days and gets somewhat frustrated with openhab or life in general - it seems like yours were today.
I assume that you are not a beginner with openhab, as you speak about your experiences with openhab 1.x and 2.x - so maybe give 3.0 M1 a try. A lot of new stuff to learn. 
Jokes aside, for me as a non technical guy with less to no developing experience it took me years to get familiar with most of the functions that OH offers (and there are many) but I still can say, I love it and if you choose to get into home automation apart from all the cloud solutions from the big manufactures and you are somewhat security-aware, theres no way around openHAB.
So roll up your sleeves, use your 30-years of developing experience and help this great community making things easier for beginners - your help will be appreciated!
Still a strange first post - but made me smile 
They did not say they were a developer. They very likely are not a software engineer, but design real physical things.
You´re right - but not less usefull. If I could wish a thing, you could develop a custom daughterboard for the new Pi4 compute module with just an M.2 SSD slot, the gigabit port and 2-USB 2.0 slots in a small form factor.
In exchange I would try to help on getting maybe a few of your questions sorted out. 
ELECTRICAL.
An electronics professor used to say “electronics is electricity divided by 1000”. Completely different design skills.
Electrical engineers also design and develop PCBs, as @RGroll describes.
They did:
Considering these qualifications, I’d like to jump on @RGroll offer - I’ll have one of those boards in exchange for help too!!
And @Chris_Sadler - this is probably my favourite first post I’ve seen!
Or create / design your own carrier board.
So we help the OP, and design our own carrier boards? How will we ever feel like we’re getting paid for this?!
This thread is heading for the ( so far not existing) Chitchat category at WARP speed
Well the topic started with non-fundemental expressions. A bit as Chitchat 
I agree and I somehow took my OpenHab project down for now.
Mostly I got frustrated about the bad debugging possibility the OpenHab parser provides. The error messages as well as VS Code are of no real help to produce code with correct syntax - or to provide a clue where the problem is.
Sadly I do not have time working on OpenHab in a way that I could contribute. Sorry ;(
So what to do: I may wait for OH3. Maybe that one fits better to me. Maybe I find time to check out some other solutions. Maybe I will simply use existing Apps (Shelly…) and stop investing so much time in smart “whatever”. Or maybe I get really motivated one evening and start working with OH2 once more. Maybe next time I really remember all the syntax right and the whole thing starts flying!
I know this isn’t the best “entry” he made in a forum like this but hey… we’re all having a bad day sometimes, no need to put such sarcastic undertone…
This forum is indeed built upon a whole bunch of people (and I’m definitely not one of them since I’m not knowledgeable enough about the subject) willing to help each other and that’s great!
Let’s try to keep it that way…
Why do you explicitly say “Thank you for the warning to stay away from the ancient openHAB 1.x”? I’m still using 1.8.3 and this to my very liking and satisfaction.
I know there’s a winking eye too, but still: openHAB 1.x still has its place. At least, for me…
I"m following the openHAB 2.x threads from the sidelines and I’m honestly a bit (or should I say: very) reluctant to jump into that openHAB 2.0 adventure. Why would/should I change something that works to my very satisfaction?
Never say never, of course. Maybe one day I would like to use something that’s only available from openHAB 2.x onward (although I can’t think of any such thing for the moment) and will have no choice but changing. But then, I think I will need lots of preparation and testing before I would be able to do a successful move.
So: Still using openHAB 1.x? Yes sir!
You don’t particularly need to, unless the technology which you’re trying to integrate with openHAB is no longer compatible with the V1 bindings.
I usually agree: if it’s not broken, don’t fix it!
If it is old & unsupported but broken, do not complain
Gentlemen,
the guy has a point when he complains about poor debugging support. It took me forever to e.g. migrate to MQTT v2.
Thats also whats keeping me from updating more frequently.
@s0170071 i know that problem too but we alle know that there is a lot of potential to improve thing.
My first post was a question about something i do not understand and others just say “Hello i am here now”. Most people not just start complaining about thing and then say nothing again.
Good news: MQTT in OH3 use the same mdoel as the V2 mqtt binding Bad News: There are a dozen of new thing
Hate is such a strong word but I get your point. It is hard sometimes reading the forum to learn because you just make everyone else’s mistakes.
Write yourself a cheat sheet at the top of your config files like my things file has
// itemtype itemname "labeltext [stateformat]" <iconname> (group1, group2, ...) ["tag1", "tag2", ...] {bindingconfig}
/*
Google metadata
Switch / Dimmer / Color { ga="Light" }
Switch { ga="Switch" [ inverted=true ] } (all Switch items can use the inverted option)
Switch { ga="Outlet" }
Switch { ga="Coffee_Maker" }
Switch { ga="WaterHeater" }
Switch { ga="Fireplace" }
Switch { ga="Valve" }
Switch { ga="Sprinkler" }
Switch { ga="Vacuum" }
Switch { ga="Scene" }
Switch { ga="Lock" [ tfaAck=true ] }
Switch { ga="SecuritySystem" [ tfaPin="1234" ] }
Dimmer { ga="Speaker" }
Switch / Dimmer { ga="Fan" [ speeds="0=away:zero,50=default:standard:one,100=high:two", lang="en", ordered=true ] } (for Dimmer the options have to be set)
Switch / Dimmer { ga="Hood" }
Switch / Dimmer { ga="AirPurifier" }
Rollershutter { ga="Awning" [ inverted=true ] } (all Rollershutter items can use the inverted option)
Rollershutter { ga="Blinds" }
Rollershutter { ga="Curtain" }
Rollershutter { ga="Door" }
Rollershutter { ga="Garage" }
Rollershutter { ga="Gate" }
Rollershutter { ga="Pergola" }
Rollershutter { ga="Shutter" }
Rollershutter { ga="Window" }
Group { ga="Thermostat" [ modes="..." ] }
Number { ga="thermostatTemperatureAmbient" } as part of Thermostat group
Number { ga="thermostatHumidityAmbient" } as part of Thermostat group
Number { ga="thermostatTemperatureSetpoint" } as part of Thermostat group
Number / String { ga="thermostatMode" } as part of Thermostat group
String { ga="Camera" [ protocols="hls,dash" ] }
*/
Also I guess at 30 years you know that writing the documentation is the most important part of the project.