Wireshark · Ethereal-dev: Re: [Ethereal-dev] Re: [Ethereal-cvs] rev 17057: /trunk/plugins/lua/: Makefile.am packet-lua.c plugi

["Mark H. Wood" <mwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

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I must go take a look at lua before I make too many mistakes through
ignorance, but...there are arguments against using a general scripting
language as part of a larger work.  To make your product secure, you
always wind up having to somehow disable parts of the language that give
powers you don't want to hand out, and since people are always expanding
these languages you are now entered in the Red Queen's race and will never
finish.

It's better to remove unwanted features in the design phase of the
language.  What's wanted (which should be discussed *elsewhere* as this is
increasingly *not* about Ethereal) is a general framework for implementing
product-specific languages.

I used to work with VMS and grew to like Command Definition Language quite
a lot.  All products that use CDL show a family resemblance, so when you
are introduced to a new product you already know in general how to
interact with it, but each product defines only the operations and
modifiers that it needs.  Nobody is going to surprise you with something
he figured out how to do in your command interpreter, because if you
didn't want it then you didn't put it in, and if you didn't put it in, it
ain't there.  Say all you want against the syntax of a CDL-defined
language, but the principle of a common framework for specific languages
seems worthwhile.

Tcl seems to have been aimed in this direction, but IMHO it's still way
too powerful for integrated use.

I won't burden this list any more on this subject, but I'm interested in
discussing it privately or on a more appropriate list.

Of course, if an appropriate framework isn't available then lua may be a
very good choice given the desire to do something right now.  "Perfect is
the enemy of good" and all that.

- -- 
Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer   mwood@xxxxxxxxx
Open-source executable:  $0.00.  Source:  $0.00  Control:  priceless!

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