[1398] in java-interest
java-interest-digest V1 #142
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mark S. Friedman)
Thu Aug 31 18:16:41 1995
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 12:24:53 -0700
From: msfriedm@us.oracle.com (Mark S. Friedman)
To: java-interest@java.sun.com
In-Reply-To: <98050979@toto.iv>
Reply-To: msfriedm@us.oracle.com
> From: gandalf@viman1.viman.com (Matt Cline)
> Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 22:47:48 -0700
> Subject: Re: Third Party Library Loading
>
> > I am currently working on an applet that will allow
> > searching into a Sybase database. Originally I created the
> > applets using native methods to call the database library
> > calls and things were working ok. But I have been told that
> > this is not a solution because for anyone to use the applet I
> > will have to download the sybase library onto thier machine,
> > since it is dynamically loaded for them to use the applet. Is
> > this true? If so how do I get around it. It is impossible for
> > me to distribute database libraries and would like my search
> > commands to come from the client if possible.
>
> If you have a native method that you want people around the net to use,
> give the source code for the native method to someone running a
> "trusted host". This person will go over the code with a magnifying
> glass, fine-toothed comb and what-not to make sure that it only does
> what its supposed to do, and doesn't do anything sneaky. Once they are
> sure of this, they compile the code and put it onto their host.
Unfortunately this scheme doesn't deal with one of the most common
scenarios where you need native code libraries (in particular, it
probably is the one that the original poster is in), i.e. the case
where you're interfacing to vendor supplied libraries. In that case
you don't have the right to send those libraries over the net, let
alone give the source code (which you probably don't have) to some
third party.
In some cases, you might be able to convince a vendor to allow their
code to be dowloaded from some central site(s) either their's or
third-party's. Hopefully those libraries can be digitally signed,so at
least we know that it is the real vendor supplied code. Then we just
have to trust the vendors the way we do now.
-Mark
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