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From: VAF@CMU-CS-C.ARPA (Vince Fuller)
Newsgroups: net.mail.headers
Subject: Re: "blaming Unix SendMail"
Message-ID: <487@hou3c.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Apr-84 15:56:53 EST
Article-I.D.: hou3c.487
Posted: Thu Apr 19 15:56:53 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Apr-84 02:18:58 EST
Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Lines: 20
To: MRC@SU-SCORE.ARPA
Cc: Header-People@MIT-MC.ARPA
In-Reply-To: Message from "Mark Crispin <MRC@SU-SCORE.ARPA>" of Thu 19 Apr 84 07:39:20-EST

One of the things that has continually amazed me about Unix is the steadfast
refusal to implement anything as something other than a text file. This whole
argument is silly. Why does sendmail (or the termcap library, or anything else
in Unixland for that matter) have to parse a rarely-changing text file every
time it is started? Why not have the file preparsed into a binary file that
imposes structure on the options for ease of access? This kind of simple
optimization (which is the way the TOPS-20 mailsystem handles address lists)
satisfies both requirements: the text file "source" can be easy for humans
to read - it doesn't have to be parsed often - so what it parsing takes a
little while longer, and the binary can be optimized for speed (probably would
do a lot better than the current approach). I'm sorry, but I won't buy the
"it has to be parsed quickly" argument.

--Vince

P.S. My apology to those offending by the flaming tone of the message. I am
     just tired of seeing so much braindamage like this in Unix - it really
     isn't that hard to sit down and THINK about how to implement something
     before you go out and do it.
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