Python and Zope

[Tim Hammerquist]

Me parece que Oleg Broytmann <phd at phd.pp.ru> dijo:
> On Mon, Sep 10, 2001 at 10:47:08AM +0000, Tim Hammerquist wrote:
> > >    I know. I know very well what is CGI, what is apache module, and what is
> > > web-application server.
> > 
> > Then I was hoping you could explain this snippet:
> > 
> > > > Apache modules are just CGIs.
> > 
> > Ok, an Apache module sends and receives information through API hooks.
> > 
> > The CGI spec states that information is passed to the CGI app on STDIN
> > and in the environment, and that information is received back via
> > STDOUT.
> > 
> > What am I missing that makes them the same?
> 
>    We are talking about "Apache vs web-application servers". In this
> context modules are so like CGIs (forked and killed) so I don't need to
> make a distinction.

We probably just have a Point-Of-View problem.  I'm thinking of CGI in
the strict sense of an application designed to produce web content using
STD filehandles and environment variables.  In all fairness, my ftpd
conforms to your (most recent) definition of CGI, as do half of the
daemons on my system.

> > > > Apache forks off a child at random, and at random kills children.
> > 
> > You said elsewhere in the thread that what you meant by "random" was
> > simply that it's not up to the module when the server process is killed.
> > This reminds me of two things:
> > 
> > 1)  When people would post to clpm wanting to know why they ended up
> >     with two identical random integers, apparently mistaking "random"
> >     for "unique."  It's a frequently misused word, it seems.
> 
>    In English the word "random" has many meanings! What about "Random
> Access Memory"? This is just a kind of memory where you can access every
> address at your will (at random!) Apache kills children "at random" means -
> it kills it by its own will, not consulting the very children :)

That's a fair argument.  I keep reverting to the pure, abstract
mathematical definition of random, which is impossible.  The
very fact that "random" numbers are "generated" prevents them from being
random, in a sense.

I always assumed that RAM was named such simply to distinguish it from
_Sequential_ access. In such a case, I'd like to think I'd have chosen
a more intuitive name, but no one asked me, and maybe it's better they
didn't. =)

I probably took offense to the picture you painted of Apache, being a
ruthless, discompassionate Nazi of a daemon, kill arbitrarily, which
is, of course, not true.

-- 
Is there any person in the world who does not dream?
Who does not contain within them worlds unimagined?
    -- Narrator, The Sandman