[asterisk-doc] r3 - // /en/config/ /en/reference/general/ /en/reference/general/functions/ /...

[Peter Beckman]

On Thu, 4 May 2006, Randy Resnick wrote:

> Russell Bryant wrote:
>> commits at digium.com wrote:
>>> +<refentry id="function.vmauthenticate">
>>
>> As has been suggested multiple times already, you should *really* start
>> using the term "application" in this documentation before you get much
>> further.  We have another entity in asterisk called dialplan functions
>> which are completely different from applications.  Use of the term
>> "function" in this context is bound to cause mass confusion.
>
> I wish I had more time because not only is what Russel said very true
> and important, the entire terminology needs to be scrutinized and I
> think several areas need improvement. This is no one's fault, just the
> organic growth of asterisk.

  See my email from moments before this one (:-) ); the documentation itself
  calls everything "Applications" except for that class ID.

> Someone should step in and identify the ambiguous and hard to search for
> elements as well. For example, when talking about this:
>
> ${EXTEN:4}
>
> What is that called? If I didn't know better, starting with asterisk, my
> reasoning would be "there's gotta be a substring function" (heh, or is
> that an application?) Once I coulnd't remember whether ${}:n was zero or
> one indexed. I googles for asterisk substring, assuming I'd find
> "substr() is deprecated, see fjhregf.

  There is a "Language Reference" section that is pretty poor at the moment,
  but I would assume it would be put there, under a "Variables" section that
  would cover the concept of Global, Channel and other variables, as well as
  modifiers such as :4, why the curly braces are there and when to use them,
  etc.

  I'll add the Variables Language Reference today; it should be viewable
  here in the next hour or two:

     http://mph.gotdns.com:82/manual/en/language.variables.php

Beckman
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Peter Beckman                                                  Internet Guy
beckman at purplecow.com                             http://www.purplecow.com/
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