LPM: Roll call (fwd)

[Mik Firestone]

(Sorry Rich.  Didn't see this had gone to the list as well.  Sigh.  More
coffee will fix this problem... ).

On Mon, 19 Apr 1999, Rich Bowen wrote:

> 
> Couple questions ...
> Do the folks at Majordomo know that you are doing this? (If there is
> such a thing) 
No - I am filling a rather specialized need and I:
    o Do not need most of what majordomo has to offer
    o Need to rework majorcool something fierce

As the two are tightly coupled, I need to rework both of them.  Basically, I
have ( and I am not kidding ) 2,286 lists and the number will only grow.  Add
to that majordomo creating something like 6 aliases for each list, I now have 
+12,000 aliases.  Management is a nightmare.  As it goes, I really only need
the subscribe/unsubscribe functionality of majordomo.  So I will rewrite that.
Minordomo is close, but I would have to change too much of my current methods
to make it go.

Now, majorcool sucks wind on that many lists.  I have already changed
majorcool to use reverse look up files[0] and that has resulted in a massive
improvement.  If I can find the time, I will like submit those patches to
majorcool.  However, it just plain takes a long time to render that much
data and the format is confusing.  I am trying to design a more intuitive
interface ( believe it or not, the 2300 lists are created by something like 70
metalists ) so that the data becomes information[1].

> What are you using to send mail? That is, are you using Mail::Sendmail,
> or sendmail itself, or just making your own socket connections?
No.  sendmail is optimized much better than anything I could write, and I need
that level of optimization.  One incoming bit of mail could generate a *lot*
of outgoing mail.  Sendmail also provides other little tricks that I just
plain couldn't code.

> Why are you doing this?
I enjoy pain?  I was somehow getting a life and thought this would put a stop
that?  My phone at work wasn't ringing enough?  I like listening to user's
whine?  Frankly, I am doing this because my boss oversold some software[2] and I
am now tasked in attempting to deliver on his promises.

> Will you make the end result available to the rest of the world?
I do not think so.  My needs ( with the exception of the reverse lookups ) are
highly specialized and I do not believe they would benefit anybody else.  I
started with majordomo/cool as a proof of concept.  

-- 
Mik Firestone fireston at lexmark.com
If ever I become an Evil Overlord:
I will have young lads/lasses in strange clothes, with foreign accents,
REGULARLY climb some monument in the main sqaure of my capital and denounce
me, claim to know the secret of my power, rally the masses to rebellion, etc.
That way, the citizens will be jaded in case the real thing ever comes along.

[0]  See, default majorcool has to open each and every mailing list file to
discover a user's subscriptions.  When operating on 2300 files, you would not
believe how long this takes - last I saw, it was something like 10 minutes.
My brain flash was to create a series of files, one per email address.  A
user's subscriptions are stored in this file.  This way, no matter how many
mailing lists I create, majorcool will open 1 file to discover what a user's
membership.

[1] Something of a catch phrase of mine:
        Information is the distillate of data
        Knowledge is the distillate of information
        Understand is the distillate of knowledge.
    Computers are good at the first step, but only if the software is designed
    very carefully.

[2] Say no to proprietary software, boys and girls.


-- 
Mik Firestone fireston at lexmark.com
If ever I become an Evil Overlord:
I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum-a small hotel well
outside my borders will work just as well.