Re: Why write an Ada web browser ?, was: Re: GNAT Ada - DLL - MSVC

[Darren New <dnew@san.rr.com>]

David Marceau wrote:
> >         Would you write a Java Virtual Machine implementation in Ada ?
> In my opinion it is a waste of time because assuming you have access to
> the source, you could recompile on any platform quite easily.
> The recompiled ada would be much faster than a JVM running java byte
> code.  JAVA and jvm is hype IMHO.

Errr, except for the web sites that have Java on them, yes? I mean, how are
you going to run a java applet off a web site if you don't have a JVM in
your browser?

> >         How about FTP/Telnet/secure sockets, etc ?
> Sockets. Don't have to Adasockets
> Secure sockets. Don't have to Adasockets
> Http downloads/uploads binary files. Don't have to AWS.
> FTP seems to be redundant now. No.

Um, ... no, it's not. 

> Telnet yes.  Great for debugging.
> gdb yes.
> ssh/ssl.   Yes and by far the most important for security reasons.

You missed smtp and nntp.
 
> > What method would an Ada browser use to handle the requirement to
> > dynamically support plug-in modules and to execute the code within
> > that plug-in ? What would be the advantages of that method ?
> Dynamic run-time plug-ins are a security issue.

That's the point. The question is how Ada would make run-time plug-ins
safer, and the answer is that it wouldn't.

If you're not going to support the modern stuff, there's no need to rewrite
in Ada at all. Just install Mosaic.

> Back to plug-in architecture I like AWS http://libre.act-europe.fr/aws/
> because for each plug-in created, it is run as a separate process and
> talking to the other process via a protocol
> hence protecting the original program from being tampered with via
> memory.

That doesn't make it secure, tho. That just makes it secure from buffer
overruns. Nothing keeps that other process from breaking into your machine
in other ways.

It also means that every plug-in you create use has to be rewritten from
scratch as well. Are you also going to rewrite Flash etc? Sounds like a
rather big job.

> The above is not sci-fi.  It exists.  Hence e-commerce confidence going
> doing the tubes.

This is news to me. But I think we're getting way off-topic.

> If you feel strongly about writing code that will surpass your lifetime,
> write it in ada.

If you think FTP is now obsolete, what makes you think HTTP won't be just as
obsolete before you die? HTML has been around what, 15 years? And if it
wasn't so entrenched, it would be completely replaced by XML already. Java
will likely suffer a similar fate at the hands of .NET. So why would one
worry about the decades-long maintainability of a client for a server that
likely won't be around in 5 years? :-)

-- 
Darren New 
San Diego, CA, USA (PST). Cryptokeys on demand.
** http://home.san.rr.com/dnew/DNResume.html **
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     My brain needs a "back" button so I can
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