Re: [9fans] dvips(1): RFC

[ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 9:03 AM,  <tlaronde@polynum.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 04:42:22PM +0100, Richard Miller wrote:
>> > I want dvips(1) to only have
>> > one configuration file, called: "dvips.cnf" (and not "config.ps"
>> > since it's not Postscript instructions)
>>
>> The default config file name may be silly but that's where people
>> who are used to dvips on another o/s will expect to find it.
>>
>
> If it is clearly documented, I don't think this is a problem. And since
> I remove too, in the config file, the 'E' command allowing arbitrary
> execution of commands via system(3), at least it will be clear that
> something changed.


What you're doing is kind of neat, unwinding really bad ideas from TeX.

I'm amused about dvips executing commands. People have given Adobe a
lot of trouble about the embedded javascript in PDF files, and now we
see that somewhere along the line the open source community did
something even worse. When did system() creep into dvips, I wonder? I
can't imagine the original authors making such a terrible mistake.

ron