[asterisk-users] building a phone

[Paul Chambers]

Christian Stredicke wrote:
> I agree, the interesting part is adding what is not included in the
 > standard firmware.
> 
> Regarding documentation... On the one hand the phone is running a
 > "regular" embedded Linux, I think that does not require additional
 > documentation. The API to the phone is a different topic. It will
 > really depend what content we are talking about.

May not be a need for much documentation on their embedded linux distro, 
but I'd be surprised if none is needed.

While it's probably possible to figure out everything if you have the 
source for everything (including things like bootloaders) I wouldn't 
make the assumption Snom would make all the source available. Besides, 
some notes to get us started would save some time, even for experienced 
embedded linux developers.

Though I do agree the bulk of documentation should be for the 
'non-regular' parts.

It'd be nice to have a developer section on their wiki, and be able to 
extend/update/correct developer documentation that they seed it with. 
That way the external developers can share what they learn, and each 
individual doesn't need to figure the same things out themselves.

> Many applications can be done using the mini-browser. The software
 > does not even have to run on the phone for that. Maybe a concrete
 > example of an application that has to run locally on the phone
 > would be useful.

OpenVPN, for example. I could see interesting things being enabled by 
having Avahi onboard too. It's not really true 'applications' which I 
think would be interesting to embed on the phone.

I've long wanted to have bluetooth presence detection in desk phones, to 
be able to indicate the approximate physical location of an employee in 
the building(s). Kinda hard to do that with a mini-browser :)

Mini-browsers certainly have their uses, don't get me wrong, but not 
everything can/should be done 'at arm's length'. A bit of local 
intelligence can go a long way, even if the bulk of the work is done 
centrally.

Paul