On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Benjamin Scott wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Feb 2001, Derek Martin wrote:
> > If you can name one thing that FTP gets you that can't be accomplished
> > another way, just as conveniently, I'll buy into the line that FTP has
> > it's place.
>
> Directory listings is about the only thing I can think of. Yah, you can
> generate an HTML directory on a web server, but it's completely ad hoc, as
> opposed to the just de facto listing format of FTP.
Oh, p'shaw: you left out one of the most obvious forms of FTP
functionality: the ability to strip the eighth bit off of files! C'mon: I
did it untold numbers of times prior to NcFTP, when I forgot to type
"bin"... ;-)
-Ken
P.S. I happen to disagree with the thread against FTP -- specifically, it
*is* plaintext, but all that SSH is really doing is allowing other things
(eg. X sessions) to go in unencrypted form through an encrypted channel.
It would be better, IMHO, if folks would start "embracing and extending"
protocols such as FTP, and adding encryption to their functionality,
instead of just bashing 'em. Neither SSH nor VPN "fixes" any of the
protocols that travel over them, they just mask the inherent underlying
insecurity of said protocols. Furthermore, since such protocols are
already in place and quite entrenched, it'll be a whole hell of a lot
harder to get folks to go with entirely new protocols (just ask when IPv6
will be rolled out...), when the current ones should, IMHO, be updated,
not thrown away.
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