[Freeciv-Dev] Re: C vs C++ vs Java

["Ross W. Wetmore" <rwetmore@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 04:40 PM 01/12/03 +0100, Petr Baudis wrote:
>Dear diary, on Mon, Dec 03, 2001 at 03:30:52PM CET, I got a letter,
>where Andrew Sutton <ansutton@xxxxxxx> told me, that...
>> > And, one last thing ... this is a network client-server application, so
>> > heterogeneous, portability really helps. Running the same binary code
>> > everywhere, or being able to ship pieces of it around as opposed to going
>> > through layers of translation and protocol, is a good thing.  When you
deal
>> > with objects, remember this is code+data.
>> 
>> downloadable code? hmmm.. that's an interesting idea. now that would be
>> interesting. instead of downloading static configurations for unit
>> capabilities you could just download the implementation. hmm... very
>> interesting indeed. i'm assuming java allows that as its a web protocol.

There are at least two aspects you might be missing, Andy. 

The first is that when the same code runs on both the client and the server
you don't need to ship the object code, just the non-transient data fields.
But the equivalent object down to byte order is run on either end so there
are no behavioural surprises. You get the equivalent effect to shipping
full objects. Java RMI, which is basically RPC but trying to act like COM 
or CORBA, works this way giving you the chance to build a distributed App 
that you can think of as running in a single environment. Also, there is 
only one build, and one shipping product to be distributed everywhere.
(Aside: Losing sight of the network, tends to produce poorly performing
Apps with some key design features missing, so don't do this naively :-).

It is also possible to download complete runtime archives, not just objects
and execute them, but this is usually done in a security wrapper like in the
various browsers where, for example, access to the OS runtime, or filesystem
is not possible or at least controlled by the Security Manager in the
wrapper. 
EJBs are also downloadable components, but they too run in a secure cocoon.

>oh! cool! we will get another audience of players of freeciv, 31337 [r4[k3r2
>looking for another shells for their eggdrops, pushing their backdoors to you
>directly by official interface.

Your "C" filter glasses are on. Other languages do have better control of
the security issues than you naively assume or some languages have ignored 
and you don't have to spend all your time worrying about this or building
the subsystems from the ground up :-).

>-- 
>                               Petr "Pasky" Baudis
>
>UN*X programmer, UN*X administrator, hobbies = IPv6, IRC, FreeCiv hacking
>.
>  "A common mistake that people make, when trying to design
>   something completely foolproof is to underestimate the
>   ingenuity of complete fools."
>     -- Douglas Adams in Mostly Harmless
>.
>Public PGP key, geekcode and stuff: http://pasky.ji.cz/~pasky/