[asterisk-dev] Recommendations for using a SIP stack with Asterisk

[Russ Meyerriecks]

On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 07:28:08PM +0200, Faidon Liambotis wrote:
> On 11/13/12 18:40, Matthew Jordan wrote:
> > So let's just say that having the SIP stack as a separate package is a
> > highly desirable attribute for package maintainers, and that should
> > receive sufficient weight when making a decision.
> 
> Forking & embedding libraries within your project hurts free software
> and hurts the community. It's a very uncathedral (and uncommon in this
> world) way of running a project and shows that the project cares more
> about retaining control than contributing back to the community and its
> work that is based upon.
> 
I don't know if any of this applies to the distribution model but as a kernel
developer, this is almost exactly the kernel's development process.

Most distributions fork the linux kernel, add their own patches, release their
own kernel, then submit patches back upstream. This has led to a very healthy
ecosystem for the kernel. I guess I just don't see why this wouldn't work
userspace libraries as well.

> And besides this giving you a bad community karma
Why? If relavant patches are posted back upstream, everybody benefits. Also,
any asterisk specific cruft is left out.

> I do believe it results in a technically inferior solution, for the same
> reasons a closed source development model results in inferior results than an
> open source one.
Why is it technically inferior? It's been identified that:

1) User experience is a big deal. Asterisk devs would like to keep the
time-to-patch minimal.

2) Asterisk only needs the sip stack bit of of an external library, not any
other surrounding layers.

3) Asterisk may need to modify the sip stack in non-standard ways, in order to
be compliant with non-standard devices. (to enhance user experience)

These points in mind, it seems like modifying and embedding an existing sip
stack would be technically superior?

-- 
Russ Meyerriecks
Digium, Inc. | Linux Kernel Developer
445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA
direct: +1 256-428-6025
Check us out at: www.digium.com & www.asterisk.org