Re:Malleable Systems: Software must be as easy to change as ...
by marcus_holmes on Tuesday April 14, 2020 @03:21AM
(#22863475)
But this is a lot of effort to please a small part of the audience. And if you don't get it exactly right, it'll expose your entire customer base to security concerns.
I'm old enough to remember the rounds of Word viruses spread by email.
90% of the users of a piece of software won't modify it if they could. 90% of those who modify it, will create crap. 90% of those who write something useful will be benign. But the remaining 0.1% will write something evil that means everyone suffers. And suddenly it's your fault for allowing this, and your problem to fix.
I'm old enough to remember the rounds of Word viruses spread by email.
90% of the users of a piece of software won't modify it if they could. 90% of those who modify it, will create crap. 90% of those who write something useful will be benign. But the remaining 0.1% will write something evil that means everyone suffers. And suddenly it's your fault for allowing this, and your problem to fix.