[Tutor] ethics in programming

kirk Bailey idiot1@netzero.net
Sat, 12 Jan 2002 18:10:34 -0500


This is a fair question, and deserves an answer.

Mailman cannot append advertisements, nor manage the rotation of them.

If you want your list service to earn enough money to pay for itself,
it has toeither SELL list service, or earn revenues from
advertisements appended to the traffic passing through it.


Stephan Richter wrote:
> 
> Okay,
> 
> I have read enough. Maybe I missed a mail or so, but why in the world would
> you not want to use Mailman? It is written in Python and it has a good API.
> If Mailman does not have a feature that you require, then implement it for
> Mailman. This way many others will profit from the code. And btw, Barry
> (Warsaw) is a very nice guy and is very open to new features.
>

I am glad to hear this! My experience with another product which
ALMOST did what I wanted was far less satisfying.

Also, when I started, I could not program python- or perl. I tried to
learn perl, and it left me confused. The python language seemed to me
more accessable, and the tutor list was VERY friendly and forthcoming
with good advice, and QUITE tolerant of a python newbie- a trait sadly
lacking elsewhere in other languages I considered. Again, I must
compliment the tutor list community.

And, as a high level language, it could handle doing this simply,
whereas doing this in C would be a long and arduous task, and I would
have to learn C. This is not something to accomplish in 3 weeks.

And, As I needed a scripting language for 'glue' and cgi scripting
anyway, I took it on myself to learn the best language for the task.
PYTHON. Although there are still plenty of things to learn, I am well
on my way.

And, building from the ground up, I had complete control of how it
worked, and could insure it did what I wanted, the way I wanted, and
when done I would have DEEP understanding of it, how it worked, why it
worked, and why it was that way. This also translates later into a
marketable skill- building a list server for others.

And, having had a distasteful experience with a product controled by
someone else, by creating a tool myself I could insure I could always
change it, and not have a problem with a primadonna messing up my
goals withhis/her ego. That STILL leaves a bad taste in my mouth, 3
months later.

Abnd, it meant giving the community a new tool for this sort of task.
And payforward being what it is, it is only proper that I make it
available freely under the GNU GPL.

But thanks for asking, I welcome the opportunity to clarify things.
Always feel free to ask me anything you like.

 
> Regards,
> Stephan
> 
> --
> Stephan Richter
> CBU - Physics and Chemistry Student
> Web2k - Web Design/Development & Technical Project Management

-- 
 

 -Respectfully,
              -Kirk D Bailey 
               Consulting Loose Cannon

end



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