asterisk users - May 2021 - AGI: Why is stream file and wait for digit result ASCII, but get data is "normal"?

Having been scratching my head the whole morning to find a bug, I now have
an A4 poster on the wall (not joking!) saying:

"get data" = *number*
"wait for digit" and "stream file" = *ascii !!!*

As you can see here:

AGI Rx << STREAM FILE "hello-world"
"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,*,0,#"
AGI Tx >> 200 result=49 endpos=11840
AGI Rx << GET DATA hello-world -1 1
AGI Tx >> 200 result=1
AGI Rx << WAIT FOR DIGIT -1
AGI Tx >> 200 result=49

OK, I should have RTFM a bit harder, but this is VERY confusing! Out of
interest, any idea why it was done like this, and why someone would ever
need the ascii result from a keypress, rather than the keypress as given by
"get data"?

Just curious!
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On Mon, 24 May 2021, Jonathan H wrote:
> any idea why it was done like this, and why someone would ever need the
> ascii result
Maybe because ABCD are valid DTMF events? Maybe because 0 means playback 
completed, not a 0 was pressed?

IIRC there are some inconsistencies in the AGI API that I stumbled across 
when I wrote my library back in '04. If you're not using a library, you 
may want to consider it.
> AGI Rx << STREAM FILE "hello-world"
"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,*,0,#"
'Comma' is not a valid 'digit' so this the same as
'#*0123456789'

-- 
Thanks in advance,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Edwards       sedwards at sedwards.com      Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST
             https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-edwards-4244281