[REBOL] Re: zip file support wanted - help needed
From: chris:starforge at: 14-Mar-2001 20:26
#14-Mar-01# Message from *Gisle Dankel*:
Hi Gisle,
> I really like the fact that there's no shell access in Rebol/core.
> It means I can take just about any script and use it on any computer,
> which I do, all the time.
In an ideal world, or if REBOL supported all the facilities you would ever
need for real life deployment, this would be great. But this is not an ideal
world and REBOL does not support all the things that are needed. In my case,
my hoster has disabled the SMTP deamon for security purposes, they can safely
assume that people who want to write cgi scripts that generate emails can
simply invoke sendmail /because every other language used for cgi can/.
And, from asking around, this is a fairly common security precaution,
not just a paranoid sys admin. And there are other situations where running
external programs is helpful, even necessary. The feature may be abused to
add "eye candy", but in my experience a lot of serious cgi coders can not
take a language seriously unless it can at least launch other programs.
Many of the coders I know stated the opinion that they thought REBOL
overly restrictive
, one even called it useless, after I discussed this
problem with them.
The fact that it is possible to do workarounds like I have is a point in
REBOL's favour, but the fact that it is needed at all is a severe impediment
to getting coders who use perl, python, c and the rest to convert. And
unless RT want REBOL to end up as a niche company networking lanugange
they are going to have to face this problem sooner or later IMO. A system
or exec function may not be the easiest or nicest thing to include, but it
is vital to any serious cgi scripting language..
Chris
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