tlug: Re: djb [was: ibm.net with LINUX (Red Hat)]

[Rex Walters <rex@example.com>]

On Tue, Aug 11, 1998 at 03:34:41PM +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> 
> qmail's author unfortunately is enough of a blowhard that I don't know 
> that I trust his abilities, although some other people I know vouch
> for his competence, as well as his confidence.

Like some other highly intelligent people I know <eyes raised to the
ceiling>, Dan Bernstein can be, uh, highly confident in his opinions.
This quite often rubs people the wrong way.  (Like the other folks I've
mentioned, this is exacerbated by his extremely irritating tendency to
be *right* so much of the time.)

Regardless, it's a mistake to judge his code by his personality or which
sides he takes in a debate.  I'm no expert, so judge for yourself, but
I've never come across more robust code in my career.  It takes a while
to grok his code because he rarely uses standard idioms and libraries
(witness his "substdio" library) but the stuff he writes is secure and
rock solid reliable.  

His approach to protocol design is equally dependable -- rather than
develop protocols that work correctly only if everyone follows the spec
to the T, he advocates designing protocols that work correctly even if
implementors just follow examples and code to "common practice" (ref:
http://pobox.com/~djb/proto/design.html).

[I just remembered I never responded to your statement that you felt he
took the wrong side on the CRLF debate, but I've got to say I still side
with djb.  Designing his way, IMHO, helps ensure things *work* in the
real world where specs are rarely even read much less adhered to.]

I would characterize djb's stuff as truly industrial grade software that
requires a fair degree of expertise to use properly (or even
understand).  It isn't "consumer grade" code ready to be spoon fed to
the masses, but, server-side, this seems appropriate.

Sure he can be a pretty arrogant jerk at times, but man does he have
some excellent software on koobera!  

Cheers,
-- 
Rex
--------------------------------------------------------------
Next Nomikai: 18 September, 19:30 Tengu TokyoEkiMae 03-3275-3691
Next Meeting: October, Tokyo Station Yaesu central gate 12:30
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsor: PHT, makers of TurboLinux http://www.pht.co.jp