Re: [Gaim-devel] Resolving IP addresses in Gaim

[Ethan B. <ebl...@cs...>]

Sean Egan spake unto us the following wisdom:
> Considering the DNS lookup code is already written, tested, and
> stable, I see no compelling reason to screw around with it too much
> now, but I'm not too particularly concerned.
>=20
> Really, we should just extend our SRV lookup code to handle A records
> asynchronously.

This has been discussed before, and there is a good reason we have
not.  Namely, gethostbyname() [getaddrbyname(), whatever] does _not_
necessarily just do a DNS lookup.  Hostnames can be served from
/etc/hosts, from NIS, from NetInfo, from LDAP, from WINS, from [...].
We obviously aren't going to write mechanisms for all of these things,
so it's best to leave it up to libc.

Ethan

--=20
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws [that have no remedy
for evils].  They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
determined to commit crimes.
		-- Cesare Beccaria, "On Crimes and Punishments", 1764