[asterisk-users] Asterisk GUI

[Tzafrir Cohen]

On Sun, Jun 17, 2007 at 08:22:23AM +0100, Senad Jordanovic wrote:
> Tzafrir Cohen wrote:
> > On Sat, Jun 16, 2007 at 08:55:24PM +0100, Senad Jordanovic wrote:
> >> Brett Crapser wrote:
> >>> On Saturday 16 June 2007 02:24 am, Senad Jordanovic wrote:
> >>>> Paul Hales wrote:
> >>>>> GUI bad! CLI good!
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> PaulH
> >>>> 
> >>>> Really...?
> >>>> 
> >>>> So explain why every major PBX manufacturer has GUI of some sort?
> >>>> Surely they would have had CLI only if GUI is "bad"!!!
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> Senad
> >>> 
> >>> Senad - it is really to cover the inability of 'average' people to
> >>> understand CLI.
> >> 
> >> CLI is useful for small/simple "dial" tone installations. Anything
> >> above that even very competent administrator will make
> >> syntax/logical errors. 
> > 
> > Hence automation is required. Automation does not imply GUI.
> > Bad GUIs get in the way of automation.

Indeed incorrect phrasing. The GUI is not directly related to that.
A bad system may include a GUI that is very convinient for a small
number of objects, but get in the way of applying unexpected types of
changes.

Another typical situation is that a system is built with a certain flow
in mind, and that flow is not good enough for all the cases. And often
makes many simple tasks complicated.

> 
> Automation is another subject/scope. However, GUI is collection of knowledge
> and experience. If applied correctly it can only improve the company
> offerings.
> 
> I have personally spent years learning CLI in order to apply it to initial
> design of our GUI- PBXware.
> Thousands installation after, I have no full knowledge of CLI any more and I
> do not need to. It is embedded into PBXware and our team has collective
> knowledge of the whole solution. That is something CLI can NOT offer since
> detailed knowledge/training is required individually from the vary basics.
> That translates into:
> 
> GUI - team/company knowledge, less training, faster time to market
> CLI - knowledge of individual / unnecessary dependency/training /longer time
> to market

Actually, you need specific training of the specific system, as well as
ability to debug generic Asterisk problems. 

Not to mention the poor souls who need to support a varity of systems.
For them those systems just add complexity.

-- 
               Tzafrir Cohen       
icq#16849755                    jabber:tzafrir at jabber.org
+972-50-7952406           mailto:tzafrir.cohen at xorcom.com       
http://www.xorcom.com  iax:guest at local.xorcom.com/tzafrir