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.
