Re: Documentation

On Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 04:59:52PM +0000, Richard Torrens (RiscOS) wrote:
                                                           aaargh

> Which applies to most users of the free scripts available. If you use a
> free script - it's almost certainly because yuo do not know enough to
> write your own!

Partially valid point.
But it can be a good thing to avoid getting into "not invented here" syndrome,
as often taking advantage of someone else's effort can save you a lot of time,
and can let you avoid pitfalls they were caught by. For example, you may not
be aware of subtle security holes that someone else is, so if you write your
own script you may well leave a backdoor for someone malicious to exploit,
whereas if you take a *good quality* pre-written script you (hopefully) will
have no backdoors.
Plus there's a maintenance advantage - if the original author discovers a
bug (such as a security hole) and fixes it, you get the fix for free.

Which reminds me
<plug>Don't use Matt's Scripts. Use Not Matt's Scripts:
http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net
</plug>

[Not that I've used either, but I know the people who are writing NMS,
and they are sufficiently concerned about people using crappy insecure free
scripts, so they are writing good quality secure free scripts]

> It is discussion about a Perl script... As such, even though off-topic,
> it's probably better than silence?

Define silence? I forget how many perl mailing lists I'm subscribed to, and
I'm quite happy for any of them to have "silence" for several weeks if they
have nothing to say, because there are more than enough messages to read from
other lists (and not just perl lists). If I'm getting 200 messages a day,
a few less to have to digest is helpful.

Nicholas Clark