Ok, I was done with this thread, but want to make this clear, since I 
started it...

> And unless there's a specific reason not to provide a failover 
> mechanism, if I were the programmer I'd probably say "thanks for 
> pointing that out".

Yep - but his point wasn't just that these 2 or 3 'shortcuts' existed. 
His point was that it took him all of a few minutes to find them after 
examining the code (after much prodding from me - you can read the 
entire thread on the SPAM-L list if you want) - which led to his very 
reasonable concern that if these were evident after just skimming the 
code, what other shortcuts are in there - and if the code is full of 
shortcuts and not properly commented, how many of these will result in 
an exploitable security risk.

> On the other hand (and in no way negating the validity of the 
> specific example), ASSP works, and works well.

This is what I keep coming back to - and why I continue to use it.

> If the program crashed because of this it would be "horribly broken".
> It doesn't. It may not be perfect, college programming class A+
> textbook material, but some times in the real world that doesn't
> matter as much as getting the job done.

Crashing was not his primary concern - exploitable security risks were. 
The fact that a program does not crash - and even performs well - does 
not necessarily that its code is well-written or secure.

Anyway, I am not a programmer, and will have to defer to those who are 
more knowledgeable on the technical quality of the code.

And, in the end, as you said above - ASSP works, and works well, so 
unless/until there is reason to stop using it, I will continue to do so.

-- 

Best regards,

Charles

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your
opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash
http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV
_______________________________________________
Assp-user mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/assp-user

Reply via email to