>Very simple: vi extensions.conf >What more do you need?
With respect, that's not practical if the expectation is for the Asterisk platform is to hit critical mass. While other PBX vendors take the "It's my way, or the highway" approach to configuration, it's not enough for Asterisk to simply ape that model simply because the credibility of the platform with CxO's has not been established on the same level as a Cisco or a Nortel or what have you. Asterisk has to do it better, cheaper, and, yes, *more intuitively* than everyone else if it wants to compete. I read an article recently in the Globe & Mail about VoIP adoption and the last part was a few quotes from Mark S about Asterisk and a quote from a Gartner talking head that basically dismissed the Asterisk movement; he said he was "highly skeptical" that any open source platform would be able to compete with the big players (I'm paraphrasing) and really, he probably said it because the Asterisk platform had no credibility with him. Problem is, people listen to Gartner Group reports. The unfortunate reality of business is that pretty screenshots sell software, vi does not. You know, and I know, and all of the other guys on the lists know, that vi kicks ass and you can do magic with it. That being said, we are .0001% of the past, present, and future potential users of Asterisk and insisting that the user use vi to edit .conf files can only hurt platform adoption. The days of white coated priests muttering incantations over a screen littered with mystic heiroglyphics are over, and business adopters *want* products that are easy to administrate. There is always the argument that this is a professional platform and it requires a professional to administrate, to which I say: "Why?" Why can't the complexity of the platform be abstracted to the point where the secretary can at least add an extension or reroute a DID? Something like that *adds* to the value of the platform. This is why I applaud the efforts of companies like Coalescent who want to bring Asterisk to the masses. Some on -biz may see these type of efforts as grass cutting, but I disagree. It may take a noob to add an extension or a DID through AMP, but it *does* and *always will* take a professional to make Asterisk work in a more-than-casual context, and for that, yes, vi is the answer (or more to the point: vi extensions_custom.conf), so IMO there's always a piece of the pie avaliable to integrators and consultants. A working Asterisk install is the sum of many correctly put together pieces, and an easy admin GUI is just one aspect. Again, with respect. >>M. MAINGAULT wrote: >> I'll be very interested in a software who can generate configurations >> files for asterisk : i would like pay once for the software, but not >> paid for each configurations (except if the price is low...) _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Biz mailing list [email protected] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
