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Subject: Re: Adduser program in C
To: winter@jurai.net (Matthew N. Dodd)
Date: Sat, 25 May 1996 20:38:21 -0700 (PDT)
Cc: dima@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSI.3.93.960525200957.1255Y-100000@sasami> from "Matthew N. Dodd" at May 25, 96 08:25:05 pm
From: dima@FreeBSD.org (Dima Ruban)
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Matthew N. Dodd writes:
> 
> On Sat, 25 May 1996, Dima Ruban wrote:
> > First: this is not small tool.
> 
> With diskspace at the price it is, I don't think size is an issue in most
> cases.

What about RAM?

> > Second: this is slow tool.
> 
> The issue that started this discussion was the 'adduser' perl script.
> I sure don't need a 'fast' program to do this job.  I'm not in need of an
> adduser program that can add 1000 users in 30 seconds.  I don't need to
> rebuild my virtual domain mail tables in a half second.  In most cases
> perl is a viable solution to many of my problems.

I didn't say anything about this particular case with adduser program.
But I couldn't stay away, when somebody (don't remember his name)
said that perl is perfect replacement for shell/awk/sed scripts.
The idea of his entire letter was "Perl rules! I'd love to see all
unix shell/sed/awk scripts rewritten in perl, because perl is perfect!"

> > Third: this is not standard unix tool.
> 
> All well.
> 
> > > specific task, and combine them to make something better.
> > > Perl is one of those tools.
> > I can't agree.
> 
> You're entitled to your opinion, but many people here have PROVED the
> above statement to be the truth.  I'm not sure how you can deny it just
> because you think its nasty.  (hey, its nasty.  I'll admit that)

I think, I did it in my previouse letter.
I didn't/don't/won't tell that perl is useless. All I did - I said, that

--- cut here ---
> > First: this is not small tool.
> > Second: this is slow tool.
> > Third: this is not standard unix tool.
--- cut here ---

> I'd be silly to try to write some of the stuff I'm using in C.  I change
> it too much or add new stuff to it too often.  Perl isn't the solution to
> every problem, but it has its place.
> 
> If the adduser program would have been written in C, I would have trashed
> it and written one in Perl.  As it is, I just had to change a few things
> and it worked for what I needed to do.  I plan on writing my own, but I
> don't have to deal with it now, as it was easy to kludge the old one.

My point is: I don't have anything against writing on perl 
program/script which I won't run more often than once per hour


> Have a good one.

I certainly will.

> | Matthew N. Dodd   | winter@jurai.net    | http://www.jurai.net/~winter    |
> | Technical Manager | mdodd@intersurf.net | http://www.intersurf.net        |
> | InterSurf Online  | "Welcome to the net Sir, would you like a handbasket?"|
> 
> 

-- dima