Re: Languages (was Re: Forms support in clients)

Paul Burchard (burchard@horizon.math.utah.edu)
Wed, 28 Sep 94 13:07:14 -0600


Brian Behlendorf <brian@wired.com> writes:
> Ack! Maybe I just don't have my thinking cap set on
> correctly, but what application would involve public,
> anonymous users sending code to the server to run, who
> wouldn't otherwise have a login account on that system or
> are "trusted" anyways?

For example, the Geometry Center's Cyberview 3D viewer allows
anonymous users to enter nearly arbitrary OOGL code for viewing. The
reason this makes sense is because an execution time limit is imposed
to conserve resources; also, the few "dangerous" operators in OOGL
are disallowed.

More sophisticated resource limits could of course be imposed (e.g.
memory usage), but given our limited per-user "liability", we feel
that an OOGL interpreter is a worthwhile service to offer the public.

P.S. See page 117 of the latest WIRED for more info. :-)

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Paul Burchard <burchard@geom.umn.edu>
``I'm still learning how to count backwards from infinity...''
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