Since the beginning, Asterisk has been a phone system for the brave. In the early days it took guts and more than a bit of tenacity to make Asterisk do your bidding. Those willing to accept the learning curve, wade into the config files, and fight for their calls were rewarded with a powerful, flexible phone system (as well as a very marketable skill set). However, the mass market was not, and is not, ready to script extensions, manage peers, and handle the other tasks that are the crux of Asterisk administration. Since the early pre-1.0 days, people have tried to tame the mighty Asterisk with config file generators tied to databases and managed via a range of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The most successful of these did a fine job of creating an Asterisk-based ap- plication, but none of them provided the full flexibility that the raw scripting environ- ment offers. By replacing the digital haiku of the dialplan with a limited list of options, the resulting system is reduced from Asterisk to an Asterisk-based system. Not a bad thing, but not the whole enchilada.* |
telephony