[plug] xargs, "Argument list too long"

[Craig Ringer]

>>One of the few decent excuses for using C or C++ is low level operating
>>system tools and kernels. Everybody else should probably go find a
>>language that understands that you can't just write 200bytes to a
>>100byte string.
> 
> A rather sweeping and inaccurate statement.If I want a language to waste MIPS
> wiping my butt for me, I choose one with such protections built in. But I 
> never loose sight of the fact it depends on the job.

Fair enough, I didn't put that at all well.

> I'm currently running a DVD rip, estimated time to completion another 29 hours 
> or so. I'm sure as hell glad that transcode isn't written in any of Perl, 
> Python, etc.

Good call. I should perhaps have said "general purpose software where 
stability and security with reduced development and audit times is more 
important than maximal performance".

Perhaps a good approach sometimes might be to write performance-critical 
parts of apps in lean, fast C or C++ that can be audited more easily, 
and write the bits where functionality, security and development time 
take priority over execution speed in a higher-level language.

OTOH, things like OO.o and Mozilla /are/ written in C and C++, but I 
wouldn't call either zippy. It'd be interesting to know what difference 
it would've made to write them in something like python instead...

Craig