I used to be quite good at creating computer programs in Basic and Quick Basic way back when. I certainly wouldn't want to do that to program a phone system.
Early electronic key systems (what you are refering to) were quite primitive and convoluted in their programming, particularly the off-shore brands. The difficulty in understanding was made magnitudes worse because of poorly written and translated manuals.
The situation has improved with most major manufacturers as new products were introduced. Many TDM systems can easily be programmed without a PC which is the preferred method.
But now we take a giant step backward. With products such as the Avaya IPO you are back to writing code and needing a PC to make it work. That's all because it's the only thing that makes sense to the people who the systems are intended to be programmed by.
-Hal
