Path: utzoo!attcan2!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bgsuvax!denbeste
From: denbeste@bgsuvax.UUCP (William C. DenBesten)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re:  Possible Executioner replacement...
Message-ID: <2345@bgsuvax.UUCP>
Date: 1 Jun 88 20:34:50 GMT
References: <8805311708.aa19483@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA>
Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.
Lines: 23

From article <8805311708.aa19483@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA>, by JDA@NIHCU.BITNET (Doug Ashbrook):

> Give some consideration to whether you could design the BINSCII files
> so that they could unpack themselves (as EXECUTIONER files can do).
> That sounds like a good challenge for a bright student :-)

But, as the current virus scare has pointed out, it is better not to
use self unpackers, since you are then creating a perfect chance for
someone to do something unexpected to your machine.  Unix folks use
SHAR archives to to transfer files.  Every once in a while, someone
will make one that automatically invokes the compiler, and installs
the program.  This tends to bother people, as they usually want to
look things over before giving any CPU time up.

-- 
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William C. DenBesten          |       denbeste@bgsu.edu                  
Dept of Computer Science      | CSNET denbeste%andy.bgsu.edu@relay.cs.net
Bowling Green State University| UUCP  ...!cbosgd!osu-cis!bgsuvax!denbeste
Bowling Green, OH 43403-0214  |
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There is no difference between theory and practice in theory, but there is
often a great deal of difference between theory and practice in practice.