Re:Why Programming Is Difficult (2014)
by souprock on Monday April 22, 2019 @07:36PM
(#19724171)
The canonical example must be TFTP.
Back around 2000, I installed tftpd so that I could boot a VxWorks board. It came locked down for security to the point that it wouldn't even work, and the documentation was no help in making the tftpd operable. After much frustration, I realized that writing tftpd with plain old C and sockets would be easier. I did that.
A decade later, I again needed TFTP. Surely the passage of a decade would have sorted out the issues. Nope! Having long ago lost my reimplementation due to job change, I very nearly wrote TFTP yet again. This time I was saved by the discovery of hpa-tftpd, which actually works.
I wonder why hpa-tftpd is not the default or only TFTP server packaged with Linux. The regular package is, as far as I could tell, non-functional.
Back around 2000, I installed tftpd so that I could boot a VxWorks board. It came locked down for security to the point that it wouldn't even work, and the documentation was no help in making the tftpd operable. After much frustration, I realized that writing tftpd with plain old C and sockets would be easier. I did that.
A decade later, I again needed TFTP. Surely the passage of a decade would have sorted out the issues. Nope! Having long ago lost my reimplementation due to job change, I very nearly wrote TFTP yet again. This time I was saved by the discovery of hpa-tftpd, which actually works.
I wonder why hpa-tftpd is not the default or only TFTP server packaged with Linux. The regular package is, as far as I could tell, non-functional.