[Asterisk-Users] after hours - is this logic ok ?

[Lance Arbuckle]

Tilghman Lesher wrote:

> 
> I'm curious as to why you're going the extra step to put a value into
> the database.  Why not just set a channel variable and check that value?
> 
> [day]
> exten => s,2,SetVar(daytime=1)
> 
> [night]
> exten => s,2,SetVar(daytime=0)
> 
> [macro-stdexten]
> exten => s,10,GotoIf($[${daytime}]?11:111)
> 
> Using a variable is nice, because all channels get their own variable
> space, so there's no chance of collisions between different calls, and
> the variable is automatically trashed when the channel is hungup.
> 
> -Tilghman

Hi Tilghman
thanks for your response.
I stuck the value in the database because I haven't a clue as to what
I'm doing :-)  In all my reading I didn't see anything that talked about
variables having their own private per channel sandbox in which to
play.  I just figured since * had a DB, I'd use it :)  It's exactly this
type of thing that I'm finding frustrating while trying to learn
Asterisk.  I'll spend hours reading about something ( in this case I
read a bunch about setvar and the DB commands ) but at the end of all
that reading all I could show for it was two methods of accomplishing a
task, but I din't know which way (if any) was the best or most
appropriate way.  I feel like I'm handicapped in learning Asterisk by my
lack of not knowing a programming language.  I have a sneaky feeling
that a lot of the answers to my questions would be obvious to someone
with C/C++ experience.

So, here's another question...  How does someone with no programming
experience, effectively learn the proper way to do things in Asterisk ?

For example, if I want to implement feature xyz, currently I go googling
and read, read, read.  I may come up with two or three sample contexts
that accomplish the same thing via different means.  All I can do now is
pick one of the examples and modify to my needs without any regard to
the pros and cons of each example.  Now, I *try* to post intelligently
phrased questions to this list but after seeing some of the threads the
past few days, I'm hesitant to post the "how do I implement this?"
questions for fear of being flamed to death :( or getting the standard
"Google is your friend" responses.  What would be a great help to me and
possible other beginners, is whenever a question is asked of the list,
responses include a brief explanation of the "why" for the particular
answer.  Or, if there is another resource that talks in generalities
about how to do thing in Asterisk, please, I beg the list, to tell me
where it is :)


Happy New Year !!

-- 
  .~.    
  /V\    Lance "I'm always looking for clue's" Arbuckle
 // \\   
/(   )\  
 ^'~'^