[linux-elitists] Mailman Must Die

[Ruben Safir]

On Fri, Oct 26, 2007 at 07:33:41AM -0700, Marc MERLIN wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 26, 2007 at 05:08:45AM -0400, Ruben Safir wrote:
> > Maybe but I've done it before.  The thing is, I'm not writing softwre to be reused
> > and packaged, but something integrated into my current environment where many of
> > the parts are already written and clugged into the environemt.  Unlike many,
> > I'm a crappy sys admin and decent programer. I often find it easier to rewite
> > something myself than download, install and tinker with someone elses stuff to
> > disatisfying results, and then have to worry about security updates.

> 
> Apart from the fact that I congratulate you for writing bugless software
> without peer review, 

Bugless?  Hardly.  

> I also congratulate you for being able to write a fully
> RFC compliant MLM that won't blow up when you receive input you didn't
> account for.

Generally it does what I need it to in a way I desire.

> Quite frankly, even a crappy sysadmin can get a reasonable mailman setup
> working (including nice archiving), quicker than the best coder can rewrite
> a full MLM from scratch.
> And you still have time left over to modify/fix/improve mailman to do the
> few things it didn't do quite right for you.
> 

Yeah, I'm not worried about that.  I like it better that I can decorate my
own computer with my own software.  I secure software by locking the doors.
I can do that far better with my own software than someone elses.


> But if your attitude to coding is "I'd rather rewrite all this than soiling
> my eyes and hands looking at someone else's code", that's not a very good
> way to get hired anywhere as a coder, and even if you are super brilliant,

Perhaps, but I'm not hired as a coder despite current offers.

> you end up being a DJB that people snicker at with "that guy thinks he's so
> bright that he had to write his own libc" (instead of fixing/wrapping the
> few problematic pieces of them, and in the case of reasonable maintainers,
> contributing the code back).

Ummm - I doubt it.  I never package my stuff for general consumption, for one
thing, and even when I make my modules available. its under the GPL.  



> 
> Just my 2 cents...

But your missing the point.  All those programming tools are on your box for 
a reason.  There is more to programming than creating new useless projects 
for SourceForge.  I have the ability of solving my problems without needing
to confine my thinking to predigested packages.  I make them do what I desire,
even if that includes reject mail with bang marks in the subject headers.

Ruben
-- 
http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software

So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world  - RI Safir 1998

http://fairuse.nylxs.com  DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002

"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"

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"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.<
You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt.  I guess you missed that one."

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