Re: Virtual Machine in the abstract (was Re: [DotGNU]What languages shouldDotGNU support?)

[Fergus Henderson]

On 03-Dec-2002, Peter Minten <address@hidden> wrote:
> Stephen Compall wrote:
>  
> > Peter Minten wrote:
> 
> > The conceptual SEE supports any executable that can be
> > magic-numberified.  DotGNU will thus not have to provide all the
> > virtual machines itself, but instead rely on third-party support (PSF,
> > Ruby).
> 
> So to run a Ruby webservice you tell SEE to run the ruby executable and tell
> that to interpret the script? I like the idea, it's simple, it's elegant and
> it's very compatible with existing code.

The drawback of this approach (compared to using just the one intermediate
language, CIL) is that it is less secure, because it relies on a larger
trusted code base.  Instead of needing to trust just one interpreter,
you need to trust all the different languages interpreters.  Bugs in
the Ruby interpreter, for example, could result in security holes.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <address@hidden>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
The University of Melbourne         |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.