<HEAD><TITLE>discuss@charon: [525] in "Coldmud discussion meeting"</TITLE>
<H1>[525] in Coldmud discussion meeting</H1></HEAD>
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<HR><H2>Re: To-Do list..</H2>
<H3>daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sat Nov  5 01:33:56 1994
)</H3>
<PRE>
From: brandon@riverheights.declab.usu.edu
To: coldstuff@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 04 Nov 94 23:31:43 -0700

I just had a big ole DrPepper, and I'm pissed at stupid beurocrats who
run around casting threats of federal prosecution, so take the semi
caustic nature of this post to heart and read the true intent inside (i.e.
don't take any offense from the material content which may follow :)

&lt; Should become irrelevant. 

Should be (as in there is a soon to occur change which will make it
irrelevant), or you think it should be?  If so, why?  I gleaned a touch
of this off your message but you offered no suitable replacement.

&lt; Does this mean there can be more than one object to a dbref?  If
&lt; it is, I can't see how this would cause anything but confusion.
&lt; If not, why the extra argument?

True, I believe the #object was included by random chance, to make the two
method calls look uniform.

&lt;    bind()                    =&gt; listen(port, object)
&lt;    unbind()                  =&gt; unlisten_port(port)
&lt;                                 unlisten_object(port)
&lt;                                 unlisten(port, object)
&lt;                                 listeners(port)
&lt;                                 listened_ports(object)

Hmm, I like some of them, but you are stepping down with others... First:

&lt;    bind()                    =&gt; listen(port, object)

Could fly, but I would be adverse to the name because 'listen' in general
is vague.  Listen to what?  Mexican mariachi bands over on object $party?
Perhaps listen_for_connection(), but then you may as well go back to ports,
which DO have a meaning in TCP but does that necessarily mean that is how
we are interpreting them?  Perhaps port is just a generic term saying
something will have a 'berth' here, be it a network connection or some
type of modem interface.

&lt;    unbind()                  =&gt; unlisten_port(port)

Ouch, rescind into improper english while using an even more vague term
than 'port'.  The least you would want is stop_listening_on(port).
(perhaps as the alter aspect of this have start_listening_on(port, object)).

&lt;                                 listeners(port)
&lt;                                 listened_ports(object)

So you think that more than 1 object should be able to listen to a port?
God talk about scary networking...  As it is right now when you get a
connection on a port you either have the choice to rebind the port to a new
object or reassign the connection to another object (the way I did the
networking was to just spawn a new object and bind the port to it, and let
the just connected connection go on it's merry way).

However, perhaps a buildin of 'ports()' (no args, returns a dictionary with
each port as the key, and the value being the object bound to said port).

(I think I like port better than listen, in the long run--more because that
is how it is now, and there is no real reason to change it since it does
say what it is, even in the most abstract circumstances).

&lt;&gt;   conn_object.parse()       =&gt; .connection_received(`[buffer])
&lt; 
&lt; Shouldn't this maybe just be .receive()?

Actually, I rather liked .parse() myself, but .receive() works.&gt;   
&lt;&gt; set_heartbeat_freq()      =&gt; set_heartbeat()
&lt;
&lt; How about set_heartbeat_interval()?  Long, but it is after all what
&lt; the thing actually does, unlike either of the above designations.

Well, the main reason I suggested axing _freq is because I'm not one
for abbreviations.  Then again I'm not one for long names either.  What
is wrong with 'set_heartbeat()'?  That is what you are doing (depending
upon how you define a heartbeat--I would do it as being a periodic
pulse of some sort, so by setting the heartbeat you are setting how
often said pulse occurs).

&lt; MOO and ColdMUD get more alike all the time.  It'll be interesting
&lt; when/if CoolMUD gets in on this trend...

Hmm, if you are referring to the ghastly hack Pavel made to MOO, which allows
you to somewhat restrict builtins by creating a '$sys.protect_foo 1' (in
comparison to the suggested bind_function('function, object)), I do not
consider either of the two remotely similar.  Mainly because bind_function()
is a good flexible implementation which gives people a means to restrict
function calls if they want.  As far as your analogy goes, I would say
MOO moves closer to ColdMUD, yet ColdMUD steps forward even further by
taking valuable aspects of MOO and using them in a well designed way
(although the idea to bind functions to any object at a whim has been
around for a while)

&lt; This wouldn't work well with something like MOO's NP_SINGLE network
&lt; module.

I suppose it is a good thing this is coldmud then? (why wouldn't it
work with MOO's whatever?  Why does this actually have an effect upon
the design consideration of implementing such a file structure?).

&lt;&gt; Do-while syntax
&lt;
&lt; I've always liked this one.

Yah, probably wouldn't be a bad addition.

&lt;&gt; "locked" compilation flag for nethods
&lt;&gt;   A compilation flag (like disallow_overrides) which would indicate that
&lt;&gt;   the specified method cannot be changed from inside the running server
&lt;&gt;   (it must be modified offline), for security.  Basically, does anybody
&lt;&gt;   have any reason I shouldn't go ahead and implement this? (sounds good
&lt;&gt;   to me)
&lt;
&lt; This one is IMNSHO entirely silly, superfluous, and otherwise not a
&lt; Good Thing(TM).  The idea behind it seems to be that by allowing
&lt; online changing of methods basic to security one is undermining
&lt; security.

How is this such a hard concept to grasp?

&lt; However, if these methods cannot protect *themselves*
&lt; from *unauthorized* changes I'd have pretty graves doubts about
&lt; their general security myself.

So you think one should program a security system which you can trust
in being impregnable?  By leaving the ability in-db that such key methods
are compilable/writable, the threat that they can be changed is
*ALWAYS* there, no matter WHAT security precautions you take in-db, you
always have to assume that it can happen somehow.  If you have the
ability to lock a key method, then you have just plugged one potential
hole relatively tightly.

Having a 'lock' flag on a method would add nothing to the direct functional
security of the method.  What it does do is give you a guarantee that
somebody else will not find a back door that allows them to completely
replace said method with their own.  Your assumption that a single method
can completely protect itself from harm is silly, and quite frankly I
would have 'grave doubts' about any system which does such a thing.

&lt; The marginal security gain is simply
&lt; not worth making a whole bunch of people crawl on their knees
&lt; through textdumps when maintenance needs to be done.

It is not hard to edit a textdump.  Infact, I would almost prefer to
edit a textdump in some instances (do not think in relation to MOO dumps).

&lt; The first
&lt; thing I'd do if I found this bet set anywhere in a core DB would be
&lt; to use a perl script to take all instances out.

That would be your option, however such an act would (in my opinion) show
others how much you care about your system's integrity.  The lock flag
is not intended to be used on very many methods.  If you wish to spend the
time to write a perl (why the fk perl?  sed would work just dandy) script
which strips the lock flag out of the 5 methods in the entire db which have
it, more power too you (?).

-Brandon (Lynx)-
</PRE>
