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<H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Scripting Design Notes</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: Scripting Design Notes</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: Jo Dillon &lt;<A HREF="mailto:emily#thelonious,new.ox.ac.uk">emily#thelonious,new.ox.ac.uk</A>&gt;</LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 19:17:49 +0100</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
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<PRE>
Chris Gray (cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA) spake thusly:
&gt; [Mike L Kesl:]
&gt; 
&gt; Well, if you use Java, your scripting language *is* portable, but likely
&gt; more powerful than you want. Where will the scripted code run? Most
&gt; likely in the server, in which case things like all of 'awt' should
&gt; be disallowed. Likely also all of the IO stuff. You could take the
&gt; Java source they write and wrap it inside some special stuff that
&gt; imports a bunch of utility routines that you *do* want them to be able
&gt; to use, then compile the result. However, you are still vulnerable.

  Java does have a security manager system, which is used by applets
 - you could certainly prevent use of the IO stuff that way.
 
&gt; Writing a portable interpreter in C or C++ can certainly be done. The
&gt; Java interpreter itself is an example. (I doubt if Netscape has completely
&gt; different source code for different platforms - its likely a lot of
&gt; conditional compilation, etc.) You have to watch for byte-order

  It relies on a cross-platform class library that wraps native widgets
and functionality.

&gt; issues (your byte-code will likely have a fixed byte-order, and you will
&gt; have to account for that on systems where the native byte-order is

  I think Java byte order is the same on all systems; .class files /certainly/
have the same byte order and I don't think they get swapped round in memory.

&gt; different). There are also issues of alignment - some CPUs/systems are
&gt; more strict about it than others (RISC chips are usually quite strict).
&gt; Writing an interpreter of any kind in Java will yield something that
&gt; may well be unusable slow. Java itself isn't very fast (I've heard
&gt; of it being upto 300 times slower than C/C++ code, but that is
&gt; probably an extreme case).

  My own experience is that it can be up to about 20 times slower than C
without a JIT. /With/ a good JIT (like the one in IE 4) it can get to maybe
80% of native code speed.
 
&gt;  &gt;The most obvious security threat is that a scripter could call
&gt;  &gt;functions in the code he or she should not be. This problem is
&gt;  &gt;eliminated by the very definition of a scripting language. Avoiding
&gt;  &gt;this problem is usually the main part of the scripting language tied
&gt;  &gt;closely together in a brawl with flexible functionality.
&gt; 
&gt; If you define your own scripting language, or can manage to fully block
&gt; access to "unsafe" things, its probably a good thing to do. Crashing
&gt; your MUD is one thing, but you certainly don't want people to be able
&gt; to do things like access/modify/delete files on the host system!

  Java security can fix this, I think :)
 
&gt; -- 
&gt; Chris Gray     cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
&gt; 
&gt; -- 
&gt; MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.

-- 
	Jo

Harmony - the project to create an LGPL Qt clone
<A  HREF="http://harmony.ruhr.de">http://harmony.ruhr.de</A>



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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00260" HREF="msg00260.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Scripting Design Notes</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Chris Gray &lt;cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA&gt;</LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: DBMS in MU*'s</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00289" HREF="msg00289.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: DBMS in MU*'s</A></strong>, 
Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Tue 21 Jul 1998, 22:27 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00672" HREF="msg00672.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: DBMS in MU*'s</A></strong>, 
Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Wed 12 Aug 1998, 03:48 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00260" HREF="msg00260.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Scripting Design Notes</A></strong>, 
Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Sun 19 Jul 1998, 20:02 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00265" HREF="msg00265.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Scripting Design Notes</A></strong>, 
Vadim Tkachenko <a href="mailto:vt#freehold,crocodile.org">vt#freehold,crocodile.org</a>, Mon 20 Jul 1998, 05:06 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00270" HREF="msg00270.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Scripting Design Notes</A></strong>, 
Jo Dillon <a href="mailto:emily#thelonious,new.ox.ac.uk">emily#thelonious,new.ox.ac.uk</a>, Mon 20 Jul 1998, 18:19 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
<UL>
<li>&lt;Possible follow-up(s)&gt;<br>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00266" HREF="msg00266.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Scripting Design Notes</A></strong>, 
Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Mon 20 Jul 1998, 06:11 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00254" HREF="msg00254.html">[MUD-Dev] Login and Accounts</A></strong>, 
Mike L Kesl <a href="mailto:mlkesl#cpinternet,com">mlkesl#cpinternet,com</a>, Sun 19 Jul 1998, 13:50 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00294" HREF="msg00294.html">[MUD-Dev] RE: Login and Accounts</A></strong>, 
Matt Chatterley <a href="mailto:matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org">matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org</a>, Wed 22 Jul 1998, 00:41 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00306" HREF="msg00306.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Login and Accounts</A></strong>, 
Ling <a href="mailto:K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk">K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk</a>, Wed 22 Jul 1998, 13:45 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>

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