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Subject: Re: Adduser program in C
To: michaelv@HeadCandy.com (Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com)
Date: Sat, 25 May 1996 01:14:18 -0700 (PDT)
Cc: lithium@cia-g.com, joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de,
        freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
In-Reply-To: <199605250635.XAA07032@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> from "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" at May 24, 96 11:35:09 pm
From: dima@FreeBSD.ORG (Dima Ruban)
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Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com writes:
> 
> 
> >I would be doing it for the sole purpose of adding a lot of site specific 
> >things as I did under Linux (finally digged up a skeleton to the adduser 
> >program and modifying it).  I asked about it being in C because I know C 
> >and not Perl. :(.  I would rather just add my things to the current 
> >adduser program.
> 
> I'm not trying to tell you that you're wrong -- it's your system, and
> you're certainly welcome to do with it anything you desire.
> 
> However, I think you'd be doing yourself a real favor by learning perl
> (and awk, sed, sh, grep, cut, etc.).  It's The Right Thing To Do.
> It's The Unix Way: use small simple tools that are very good at a

First: this is not small tool.
Second: this is slow tool.
Third: this is not standard unix tool.

> specific task, and combine them to make something better.
> 
> Perl is one of those tools.

I can't agree.

> Plus, if you were a real sysadmin (not saying you aren't -- I'm just
> saying one who makes a living at it), you'd want to write ALL your
> simple site-specific stuff as scripts, if at all possible.  This has
> two advantages: 1) very quick and easy to modify on the fly [no edit;
> compile; test; edit; compile; test...], and 2) very easy for someone
> else to maintain if you move on to something else.
> 
> With that in mind, you're doing yourself a disservice by locking
> yourself into a single paradigm for solving your problems.  Look at
> this as a great opportunity to learn a new tool. :-)
> 
> And, if you think everything I just said is a load of bull, or you're
> simply not interested in learning The Unix Way, hack up something in C
> and be happy.
> 
> By the way, I just finished an excellent book by Peter H. Salus
> (published by Adison-Wesley), called "A Quarter Century of UNIX".
> Very interesting history of the evolution of Unix.
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>   Michael L. VanLoon                                 michaelv@HeadCandy.com
>         --<  Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x  >--
>     NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, Atari 68k, HP300, Sun3,
>         Sun4/4c/4m, DEC MIPS, DEC Alpha, PC532, VAX, MVME68k, arm32...
>     NetBSD ports in progress: PICA, others...
> 
>    Roll your own Internet access -- Seattle People's Internet cooperative.
>                   If you're in the Seattle area, ask me how.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 

-- dima