Text written by Peter C. Norton at 09:27 PM 3/30/99 -0500:
>>
>> > This isn't the same thing. They don't run commands imbedded in the the
>> > documents.
>>
>> emacs does.
>
>I had been told that it didn't anymore, unless you enable that
>behavior.
Similarly, MS Word doesn't run any macros automatically, unless you
specifically enable them in a particular document as you're opening it, or
you specifically disable the feature that alerts you to the presence of
code that wants to be automatically executed. By default, it ships with
that feature activated, and anyone opening a document containing "auto
macros" -- ones that attempt to run themselves without user intervention --
sees a dialog box alerting them to that fact and advising them that they
shouldn't enable those macros unless they trust the document's author and
know what's going on.
And, FWIW, I don't think people share documents like that very often. I
think it's seldom enough that they'd say things to each other when passing
them around, like "Word will tell you this document might have a virus in
it, but it doesn't -- it's just this thing I wrote that does such-and-so."
Hell, most MS Word users don't even know how to write a normal macro, much
less an auto macro.
So the "alias rm='rm -i' effect" doesn't really come into play here.
(Sorry, I've been thinking about that one a bit since it was mentioned
earlier. I really don't think the average MS Word user bothers with macros
at all, based on my experience as a word processing temp.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Kai MacTane
System Administrator
Online Partners.com, Inc.
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>From the Jargon File: (v4.0.0, 25 Jul 1996)
scram switch /n./
[from the nuclear power industry] An emergency-power-off switch (see
Big Red Switch), esp. one positioned to be easily hit by evacuating
personnel. In general, this is *not* something you frob lightly;
these often initiate expensive events (such as Halon dumps) and are
installed in a dinosaur pen for use in case of electrical fire or
in case some luckless field servoid should put 120 volts across
himself while Easter egging.
