From: Ethan B. <ebl...@cs...> - 2005-10-12 14:18:58
|
Mike Hearn spake unto us the following wisdom: > On Tue, 2005-10-11 at 19:42 -0500, Tim Ringenbach wrote: > > Because my fellow Gaim developers don't want me to use relaytool, not= =20 > > even just for the autopackage. Ethan seemed to have the best argument= =20 > > against it. Perhaps he should explain it to you, though I think this ha= s=20 > > been discussed before. I know I discussed it with Ethan on IRC more tha= n=20 > > one. I think it ended with me no longer understanding Ethan's objection= =20 > > and Ethan not knowing how to better explain it. >=20 > I guess I need to find out what the specific objections are, and deal > with them then. Ethan, can you explain what it is you're not sure > about?=20 Your next paragraph pretty much sums it up... > I understand that the relaytool code can appear quite opaque if you > aren't familiar with assembly language, but it's been used in other > projects (like Fyre) and not caused any problems. The underlying code is > actually very simple and does not interfere with the standard dynamic > linker. The fact that it is in assembly at *all* is one reason. Basically, I am *not* a fan of messing with things like linking and loading anywhere but libc (or ld, on platforms where these things are distributed separately). That is just asking for trouble when someone has a patched loader, or when the platform ABI changes slightly, or ... If something like relaytool were distributed with libc or otherwise maintained on such a large scale, I would not have such objections to it. (Of course, this wouldn't necessarily fix the possible pitfalls I see, but it would at least increase the likelihood that someone would already have found them.) Stu was kind enough to point out this thread, which has more detail: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=3D6035995&forum_id= =3D9587 In short, I think mucking with such things is fundamentally a Bad Idea, and I think the "feature" we get from it is not that compelling. Certainly not compelling enough to overcome the good reasons not to stick dirty fingers into the linker. Ethan --=20 The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws [that have no remedy for evils]. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. -- Cesare Beccaria, "On Crimes and Punishments", 1764 |