asterisk users - Nov 2005 - Asterisk Extension Language -- what's it's "status"?

I've been playing with ael a little bit and wondering how much time to 
devote to it.  Originally, when I read about it, I thought I'd try to 
convert my extensions.conf files to ael.  But after playing a little 
bit, I'm not sure that's a good idea.

A couple of observations and questions:
1. As far as I can tell, there's limited interoperability between 
existing (extensions.conf) and new (extensions.ael) constructs.  For 
example, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe
there's
a way to access an ael macro from an extensions.conf dial plan.

To me, this seems to make dabbling with ael harder, since I can't just 
incrementally add some stuff in ael and use it in my dial plan.

2. I can't see a way to organize my ael dial plan using #include's. 
Again, for me, this makes experimentation harder since, especially in 
conjunction with the first point, I effectively have to maintain my 
entire old conglomerate dial plan in one gigantic ael file.  Again, 
please correct me if I'm missing something.

All in all, for me, these two points have discouraged me from doing more 
than dabbling with ael.  I assume the point of including it in 1.2 is to 
get people to try to use it in a serious "beta test" manner.  I wonder
if support for these kind of capabilities is planned?

I really would like to use ael as it seems to have some clear advantages 
over the existing "language", but I'm reluctant to be too far out
on the
bleeding edge without a little more insight into where this feature is 
headed.

Thanks for any input.

Oh, and this is my first post here, so forgive me if I put this in the 
wrong place.  Does this belong on the developers list?

I'm STILL waiting on an answer to my exact same question. That was around 3
weeks ago 

->-----Original Message-----
->From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com 
->[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of 
->John Biundo
->Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 1:13 PM
->To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
->Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk Extension Language -- 
->what's it's"status"?
->
->I've been playing with ael a little bit and wondering how 
->much time to devote to it.  Originally, when I read about it, 
->I thought I'd try to convert my extensions.conf files to ael. 
-> But after playing a little bit, I'm not sure that's a good idea.
->
->A couple of observations and questions:
->1. As far as I can tell, there's limited interoperability 
->between existing (extensions.conf) and new (extensions.ael) 
->constructs.  For example, and please correct me if I'm wrong, 
->but I don't believe there's a way to access an ael macro from 
->an extensions.conf dial plan.
->
->To me, this seems to make dabbling with ael harder, since I 
->can't just incrementally add some stuff in ael and use it in 
->my dial plan.
->
->2. I can't see a way to organize my ael dial plan using #include's.
->Again, for me, this makes experimentation harder since, 
->especially in conjunction with the first point, I effectively 
->have to maintain my entire old conglomerate dial plan in one 
->gigantic ael file.  Again, please correct me if I'm missing something.
->
->All in all, for me, these two points have discouraged me from 
->doing more than dabbling with ael.  I assume the point of 
->including it in 1.2 is to get people to try to use it in a 
->serious "beta test" manner.  I wonder if support for these 
->kind of capabilities is planned?
->
->I really would like to use ael as it seems to have some clear 
->advantages over the existing "language", but I'm reluctant to
->be too far out on the bleeding edge without a little more 
->insight into where this feature is headed.
->
->Thanks for any input.
->
->Oh, and this is my first post here, so forgive me if I put 
->this in the wrong place.  Does this belong on the developers list?
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John Biundo wrote:
> A couple of observations and questions:
> 1. As far as I can tell, there's limited interoperability between 
> existing (extensions.conf) and new (extensions.ael) constructs.  For 
> example, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe
there's
> a way to access an ael macro from an extensions.conf dial plan.
I'm an idiot.  And on my first post.  Way to go, John.

So the problem is that my #includes weren't working (after my first 
mistake, I'll refrain from saying they DON'T work (actually hoping 
someone proves me wrong again and explains that they do, indeed, work)), 
so my ael macros weren't getting defined in the first place.  Once I 
moved them into extensions.ael, they were, as expected, fully available 
to my extensions.conf dial plans.

This is goodness, to me, because I think I'll enjoy learning to write 
loops and conditionals MUCH MORE in ael than in the old style.