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On Thu, 29 Jun 2006 08:10:25 +0100,
Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> __/ [ Jim Richardson ] on Thursday 29 June 2006 07:18 \__
>
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>> On Wed, 28 Jun 2006 11:14:22 -0000,
>> Tim Smith <reply_in_group@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> In article <7or9n3-5jp.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Mark Kent wrote:
>>>> Source-code, by its nature, is a superior standards-writing language than
>>>> English (or French or Spanish), as it can be compiled directly using
>>>> compilers onto multiple, different, platforms.
>>>
>>> Using source-code as a standards-writing language will mingle the standard
>>> with the implementation. Someone looking at the code won't know what
>>> things were simply implementation decisions, and what things are actually
>>> required by the standard.
>>>
>>> Source code is useful as part of a standard to provide examples of how
>>> particular parts of the standard *could* be implemented.
>>>
>>
>> Source code can tell you what the code does, not neccessarily what the
>> coder *meant* to do.
>
> To rephrase that (I hope you don't mind), source code tells you what a
> _binary_ file does, which tells you what the coder intends to do on your
> machine (e.g. does s/he phone home?).
>
not really, that's assuming a) the binary is compiled from the source
code you have (a big limitation with MS' allowing companies to view the
source code for MS-Windows et al, you have no verification that the code
they show you, produced the binaries you run.) and b) that the coder
didn't make a mistake. He may not have *meant* to use uid == 0 rather
than uid = 0 but that won't mean much if it results in a crack either way
:)
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--
Jim Richardson http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock
The major advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the
societies in which they occur.
-- A.N. Whitehead
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