Re: New MOO Maintainer: Me

• Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 15:58:52 PDT
• From:
  Richard Godard <janus@cam.org>
• Cc: MOO-Cows@parc.xerox.com
• Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
• In-Reply-To: <96Jul22.134112pdt.19562@silk.parc.xerox.com>

At 12:41 -0800 7/22/96, Erik Ostrom wrote:
>So now we get to the question, which is one you're probably demanding
>by this point:  What do _you_ all want from the server?  There are a
>few features that I know are commonly requested but that are
>conspicuously absent from my list; I'll let you name them.  I bet
>there are other things you want that I don't even know about.

Welcome to the new maintainer! :)

One thing I've not seen on your list are blocked (i.e. non-overridable
verbs), most probably because it is trivial for you to implement :)
I coded them in-db at E_MOO (developement MOO, E_CORE based) and TecfaMOO
(public edu MOO, LambdaCore based) and they works fine (thanks to the
possibility to write bf wrappers). Blocked verbs allow to code in a
complete OO design without giving up anything on security.
The drawback of having them implemented in-db is that:
a) it's slower than if it was integrated in the server (not speaking of
ugly hacks from hell to avoid crackers to tricks while the verification
task suspend, which is needed to avoid running out of ticks when too much
blocked verbs are defined)
b) it's more vulnerable to crackers (which is a real issue here since it's
a security 'feature')

Another thing would be multiple ownership, though that one is more
controvertial, but at least having it in the server allow those who need it
to have it, and those who wants to stick with single ownership can do it
just fine. Yes it most likely require to change the db big time but this
change can be done in an afternoon (this was done at E_MOO).

On a lighter note, a compile option that would disable the change of wiz
bits outside of the wiz emergency mode would be great (i.e. you can only
set/unset wiz bit while in emergency mode, not while the MOO is running
regulary). This could remove a potential source of trouble.

Just my $0.02

Janus (who looks forward table and frobs... already have dynamic loading
with the Mac port of the MOO server :-)

P.S. The Mac port home page is:
http://neon.ci.lexington.ma.us/SpamCentral/scaron/mgm.html
It's 1.8.0p5 plus some extra features (like dynamic loading of plug-in at
start-up and new bf for access to the stack (stepping in/out, ...) all the
tools needed to code a in-db debugger)

P.P.S. Brian Buchanan <brian@wasteland.calbbs.com> already implemented
frobs and tables (at least in beta, but it looked to work so far :)

• Re: New MOO Maintainer: Me
• From: Erik Ostrom <eostrom@ccs.neu.edu>

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