[asterisk-users] Why write your dialplan using Lua?

[Danny Nicholas]

Not to "purposely" open a flame war here, but is lua preferable to ael?
Aren't we better off just properly documenting our original conf files since
new changes often introduce "bad opportunities"?

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Steve Edwards
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 2:56 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Why write your dialplan using Lua?

On Fri, 6 Jan 2012, José Pablo Méndez Soto wrote:

> I wouldn't jump to a whole different language just to have an elegant 
> script plan.

I would and probably will.

Maybe it's just me, but I look at a dialplan filled with database access,
conditional gotos and priority labels and my eyes just glaze over. Rarely do
people write dialplans with consistent and sufficient whitespace.

The ability to express a 'program' or concept clearly (elegance is a bit
more subjective) is IMO one of the attributes that 'separates the men from
the boys' as far as programmers are concerned.

If you place any value in the old axiom that 80% of a program's life cycle
cost is in maintenance, anything that eases "the next guy's" burden is a
win.

Even though I am usually 'the next guy' on my own code, being able to
quickly see what was intended a couple of years ago and make changes without
destroying the original flow is a big win.

Being able to use if, while, switch, etc. allows me to clearly express
myself. I'm looking forward to see what Lua brings to the party.

--
Thanks in advance,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Edwards       sedwards at sedwards.com      Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST
Newline                                              Fax: +1-760-731-3000