Usually your articles are spot-on, but I gotta ask: Why do you think Microsoft Windows and the underlying environment are so bloated and slow, esp. when compared to a well-built *ix server?

Because the attitude "processing is cheap" may be fine for one or two highly specialized in-house programs written in a hurry as a temporary measure, but when hundreds of coders from all over get the same attitude on a permanent basis, then you end up with a cumulative effect of having a P4-based server suddenly pretending it only has the horsepower of a PPro 200 box.

To be honest, I'm kind of partial to Python. Python is damned sexy once you get the hang of it. I especially love how you can do a hell of a lot with damned little code and in no time.

On the other hand, even as lightweight as Python's RE is, it still adds (IMHO) unneeded overhead in a server environment (need we really bring up JRE as an even more obvious comparison?)

Upping the language level isn't all that much of a defense against sloppy programming practice, nor outright hork-ups that are bound to occur no matter what language you're using.

Seriously, didn't they try this near-exact same line of reasoning with Visual Basic a long time back? (let us handle the parsing gruntwork, you just tell us what you want the proggie to do) You know how secure, memory-tight, and well-written most VB proggies are (not), yes?

We seriously do not need to see the same bloated crap shackle down an *ix server (clients I could care less about... most typical users don't even begin to touch their workstations' full potential as it is now... :p ).

Regd's,
/P

[ reply ]

Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/150/18831#18831