[Cryptography Team] Re: [ANN] Working SSL In Squeak

[Bill Schwab]

Hans-Martin,

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> Just to clarify, is this a discussion regarding where a plugin or DLL
> belongs, or regarding whether we need one at all?
>   
I think both:
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Good thing I asked :)

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1. We need a primitive - the Smalltalk code is too slow to be usable.
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That is as I would expect.  Should I be surprised by the results?


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2. It should be in the base VM because it should be easy to access,
without downloading, compiling, installing etc. That was the point in
making the Smalltalk implementation compatible to the plugin, so that we
could use it in cases where the plugin is not available. But if the
plugin is built-in, that point becomes moot.
==========================

The down side is that it becomes (potentially) more difficult to upgrade
it.  However, one can misconfigure systems of almost any design.  It
might be a good idea to build a version number check into it so that
newer images will refuse to run against sufficiently dated VM code, or
something like that.  It would have to blow up in a way that: (1) won't
crash Squeak[*]; (2) does not silently send clear text.

Bill

[*] I mention it because my OpenSSL package for Dolphin crashes the
image quite badly when the DLL is not present.  I tolerate it, but would
not want to foist such junk on others :)






Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
University of Florida
Department of Anesthesiology
PO Box 100254
Gainesville, FL 32610-0254

Email: bills at anest4.anest.ufl.edu
Tel: (352) 846-1285
FAX: (352) 392-7029