On Wed, 5 Dec 2001, Ollie Cook wrote:
> In our experience, software changes only provoke failures without
> thorough testing. Philip is always very thorough when it comes to this
> kind of thing and we've never found a problem testing new features in Exim.
Thank you.
> In the past, Philip has taken this kind of constructive criticism well,
> and if he has seen fit has made the appropriate amendments to the code.
It's called "trying to keep the customers happy", which is my way of
developing software. (As opposed to "trying to extract as much money
from the customers as you can".)
> Claranet has a logical distinction between dial-up accounts and business
> accounts. The dial-up data all being stored in one database and all the
> business data in another (business, in this regard being where the domains
> come in).
>
> > After all, isn't the whole point
> > of a database that you put *all* your data in it?
Sorry. I should have put a smiley after that, or perhaps wrapped it in
<troll></troll>. It was, however, slightly serious - big sites running
serious "corporate" databases (Oracle, etc) are more likely to keep
everything in one. It makes it easy to process it in ways you didn't
think of to start with.
> > Well, ok. I have a very pragmatic opinion regarding software syntax
> > changes.
>
> There's absolutely nothing wrong with that in my opinion, and I
> understand your motivation for not wanting to see a change in syntax.
>
> In that case, perhaps there could be a 'mysql_servers_new_format' for
> those that want to use it; there are ways around the problems that
> you can foresee.
I think the problem should be solved differently. If you look at the
LDAP format, you'll see that in that case, the server can be specified
with the query, as can the user name and password if required. I think
we need something similar for the SQL formats, with the global option
providing a default. I have not thought through this in detail yet. I
have just noted the requirement on the Exim 4 Wish List.
> The transition between 3->4 would be the perfect opportunity to change the
> syntax, since so much else is changing as well. Although I have a feeling
> that Philip has "locked out" changes for the initial 4 release.
Correct. It is now too late. Exim 4 is slowly rolling down the slipway...
Philip
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
