pcre, bifs, drivers and ports

[Ernie Makris]

Hi Sean

>
> If you add this feature by hacking the otp release and adding bifs you
> would create all the long term issues of having a patched OTP release.
>
Thats ok, I already patch my releases in order to fix a linux to_erl
bug, and to allow the file driver to open /dev/urandom. The only pain is
verifying the patch on a new release. But I know the code well enough
that I can do it by hand each time.
> You would unlikely to get adopters of any open source version you
> released for much the same reason.
>
I would still put it out there, if anyone wanted to use it, they would
be welcome.
> OTOH it is not too hard to create a linked in driver that could
> alternatively be compiled as a port program. That way you give users a
> choice between speed of a driver (almost the same as a BIF), or fault
> isolation.
>
I agree, but I also wanted to see how easy/difficult it would be to add
a few new bifs.
> Sean
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