[Etoys] dbus bindings

[Bert Freudenberg]

Am 30.09.2006 um 16:26 schrieb David T. Lewis:

> On Fri, Sep 29, 2006 at 11:05:11PM +0200, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
>>
>> I create a named pipe on the python side (mkfifo), hand that name
>> as cmd line argument to the image, and open the pipe in Squeak using
>> the AsyncFile plugin. The normal FilePlugin would block the whole VM,
>> but AsyncFile works.
>
> Bert,
>
> I don't know the background of this discussion, but I'll mention that
> it would be possible to make a less-insecure, stripped-down version
> of a few OSProcess functions. For example, if you just need a way
> to run programs with popen() from Squeak such that you can read and
> write to a non-blocking pipe, that could be done with modest effort.
>
> Depending on how strict the security concerns are, it might be
> necessary to move the primitives out of OSPP and into the FilePlugin.
> Aside from this it would be mainly a matter of stripping out all
> the junk you don't need from OSProcess and repackaging the remainder
> as e.g. "POpen".
>
> I'd be happy to do this if (and only if) there is a real need for it.

Thanks :) But related to the OLPC development there is no need for  
popen() which I could foresee now. Besides, the ability to execute  
arbitrary programs does not exactly sound secure, does it?

Back on topic, the sole reason for having native DBUS bindings would  
be efficiency. We would spare us the python launcher that creates a  
GTK window into which the Squeak VM embeds its window (very similar  
to how npsqueak works).

- Bert -