[Asterisk-Users] AGI Rocks!! (A happy camper)

[Steven Critchfield]

On Tue, 2003-11-25 at 13:54, Andrew Thompson wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "WipeOut" <wipe_out at users.sourceforge.net>
> To: <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 2:14 PM
> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] AGI Rocks!! (A happy camper)
> 
> 
> > A note to all those who are avoiding writing up an AGI becasue it looks 
> > two complicated..
> > 
> > I have just written up my first and its awesome.. It makes Asterisk open 
> > to all sorts of possibilities.. let your imagination run wild..
> > 
> > I put off writing an AGI script because a) I could not find any docs b) 
> > it looked like the only way to do it was perl and I know nothing about 
> > perl and c) I am not a coder, more a simple sysadmin..
> > 
> > Eventually I decided to give it a try, and seeing as the language I know 
> > the best is PHP I decided to do my script in PHP.. The truth of the 
> > matter is that once you have worked out how to get your variables from 
> > Asterisk into a usable array or whatever you are happy using the rest is 
> > a piece of cake..
> > 
> > It goes without saying that what I have done is stupidly simple but for 
> > a non coder its still a giant achivement..
> > 
> > So all I can say is thanks to the Mark and the team for dreaming up 
> > AGI... To those who are putting off giving it a go, don't!!.. Dive in 
> > and give it a try..
> > 
> 
> I believe I read Mark or someone say many of the builtin apps would 
> become AGI scripts in the future. 

Too many of the builtins are needed to be builtin. I don't know who you
heard this from, but it is most likely incorrect. AGI has limitations
that will probably never be overcome. There also is no need to start new
processes every step of a call. This would definitely not scale well on
a machine. 

Builtin apps are really much better than AGIs. The only problem is the
added complexity of programming in C, as well as making sure your
builtin is stable enough to not crash asterisk as you would be running
inside of asterisk. 

Just try and think how you would implement Steve Underwoods fax modem
software in AGI. It wouldn't be possible. I also think the same could be
said for meetme, and many other apps that actually work with the audio
stream itself.

-- 
Steven Critchfield  <critch at basesys.com>