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From: Mahesh Paolini-Subramanya <mahesh@aptela.com>
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Subject: Re: Simplest possible plugin/component mechanism
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 09:34:23 -0500
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Could not agree more.  Back when (way back when) we used to do  
something similar to extend the NeXTStep widget set.   It was  usually  
functional as long as I was the *only* person doing anything, but  
trying to manage/maintain this across multiple users (or heck, just  
myself after a 3 month gap) was insane.  I eventually gave up on the  
whole thing.

Also, i suspect that the security issues might be interesting, to say  
the least... :-)

cheers
---
Mahesh Paolini-Subramanya
CTO,  Aptela Inc.
(703.386.1500 x9100)
http://www.aptela.com

On Nov 6, 2008, at 12:08 AM, Antony Blakey wrote:

>
> On 06/11/2008, at 3:27 PM, Paul Davis wrote:
>
>> Also, not sure if this is gonna get laughed at or not, but reading  
>> the
>> docs on the erl_prim_laoder, it looks like it actually wouldn't be
>> that hard to write a thing that could pull in erlang code from a
>> document. Obviously there'd be some security issues to figure out,  
>> but
>> how fucking cool would it be to replicate a design doc and not only
>> have a web app, but add new functionality to the underlying server? I
>> mean, that's one hell of a plugin system if you ask me.
>
> Danger Will Robinson!
>
> In Smalltalk I run into the Subject/Object problem all the time. When
> you require your system to be stable in order to fix a problem with
> the system, you're usually SOL. Imagine deploying a plugin that
> crapped out the very mechanism used to update and deploy plugins. You
> would need a fallback mechanism for deploying plugins (e.g. ssh/rsync
> etc), in which case you might as well make the fallback mechanism the
> primary mechanism and just save yourself the grief of vicious
> circularity.
>
> Antony Blakey
> -------------
> CTO, Linkuistics Pty Ltd
> Ph: 0438 840 787
>
> There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor
> more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order of things...
> Whenever his enemies have the ability to attack the innovator, they do
> so with the passion of partisans, while the others defend him
> sluggishly, So that the innovator and his party alike are vulnerable.
>   -- Niccolo Machiavelli, 1513, The Prince.
>
>


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