Re: [MacPerl] unmounting from macperl

[oszarazi@cuug.ab.ca (???)]

On Sat, 7 Dec 1996, Clinton MacDonald wrote:

> Though this is getting more and more off topic, I want to try and figure
> out what oszarazi@cuug.ab.ca <???> is getting at. I invite oszarazi to
> reply to me once more on this list, then we should probably move this
> discussion to private e-mail.

OK, but I don't think it will be very helpful.

> At 8:06 PM 12/6/96, ??? wrote:
> >> >Isn't "AppleScript" an incredibly large Security Hole??
> >> >The idea of integrating anything in that way seems to be seriously
> >> >contrary to all models of the Internet.
> 
> >> Huh? I think I don't quite understand to what you are refering. 
> >> AppleScript is built in to the MacOS System 7.5.
> 
> >Think about it.
> 
> Well, you might have to help me think about it :-/ . Without a few more
> clues, I don't yet see your point. Maybe you could illustrate your point
> with an example.

That's kind of tough for me to do.  I don't know (or understand)
enough about MacOS to really comment on anything.  In fact, it was
just over this weekend that I figured out that Apple's address, "One
Infinite Loop", was in fact a play on the concept that underlies how
Macintosh's work.

Once I begin to understand more, I might be able to comment or provide
live examples.

> >> AppleScript is a marvelous and robust scripting language for driving
> >> applications (including the Finder) on your own desktop. Matthias is
> >> working to incorporate AppleScript into MacPerl for that reason.
> >
> >To introduce security holes onto people Macintoshii ;-)
> 
> I disagree. I believe that Matthias (if Matthias were not working
> diligently on his thesis now, he would jump in and correct me here ;-) ) is
> adding OSA capabilities to MacPerl to extend the control people have over
> applications on their own computers. This is *good*.

Is it really *good* to take control out of people's hands and put it
into the hands of applications?  I remain *unconvinced*.

>    The Macintosh is famous for having pretty tight security built-in.

This is very true.  Apple rates high.

> In order to allow anyone access to your machine through AppleScript (or any
> OSA-compliant language) one must intentionally set up File Sharing to allow
> this. 

I'm sorry.  I'm still trying to understand File Systems on the Mac.  I
can't comment on this.  I don't even know right now (whether) two
devices can communicate with each other ... as an example whether one
SCSI disk drive can talk to another SCSI disk drive, without using the
68000 at all ... just the 5830.

>    And I will repeat, none of this works (at present) over TCP/IP, only on
> a local network.

Isn't TCP/IP as local a network as any other network on the Mac?

>    Cheers,
>    Clint

Sorry if this hasn't been much help.



Istvan.