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From: Antony Blakey <antony.blakey@gmail.com>
To: couchdb-dev@incubator.apache.org,
 Paul Davis <paul.joseph.davis@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: Simplest possible plugin/component mechanism
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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.