[Mailman-Developers] Requirements for a new archiver

[Brad Knowles]

At 11:01 PM -0500 2003/10/29, Barry Warsaw wrote:

>  Yep, and I really really want Mailman 3 to take this concept farther.
>  Some things that I think will help include, using Twisted to eliminate
>  the /requirement/ of Apache integration and possibly the incoming mail
>  server integration, as well as implement a bulk mailer to eliminate the
>  need for an outgoing mail server.

	There, I have to disagree.  Both the web server and the mail 
server issues are complex enough that I don't believe it would be a 
good idea to try and re-invent this wheel.  There are already enough 
bad web server and mail server implementations out there -- we don't 
need to make this situation worse.

	There may be some mailing-list specific issues that we can (and 
should) handle better inside mailman before we hand these things off 
to the other servers, but both Apache and postfix/sendmail/exim have 
enough experience and world-wide testing behind them to make it 
little else than folly resulting from hubris to try and replace them.

	There's just no substitute for having hundreds of millions of 
people world-wide pounding on these things day-in and day-out 365 
days a year.


	Components like this should be scheduled for replacement if, and 
only if, you can demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that there are 
inherent problems that are insurmountable otherwise, and there is no 
feasible alternative.

	You don't just take a Tom Mix pocket knife and cut open your own 
chest and remove your heart, to replace it with a mechanical pump 
that you designed yourself out of a tin can, a turkey baster, some 
bailing wire, and some garden hose.

	If you absolutely require a heart transplant and there are no 
human alternatives, you get a world-respected heart surgeon to 
perform the operation using the latest techniques and the Jaarvik 9 
(or whatever).  And then you get everyone in your family, all your 
friends, all your neighbors, all your church members, and hopefully 
all religious people world-wide to pray for you.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles at skynet.be>

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
     -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

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