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From: Doug Schwarz <see@sig.for.address.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.soft-sys.matlab
Subject: Re: Submission of p-code
References: <24497039.1202489169219.JavaMail.jakarta@nitrogen.mathforum.org> <foif46$17n$1@fred.mathworks.com> <fotc00$arf$1@fred.mathworks.com> <fou4ft$enh$1@fred.mathworks.com>
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Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:27:20 GMT
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In article <fou4ft$enh$1@fred.mathworks.com>,
 "James Tursa" <aclassyguywithaknotac@hotmail.com> wrote:

> "Paul Mennen" <nospam@mennen.org> wrote in message
> <fotc00$arf$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> > 
> > Sometimes there can be value in sharing p-code. ...
> > 
> > ~Paul
> > 
> 
> Yes, that is certainly true and I agree with all of your
> points. But frankly I am a little surprised that the
> Mathworks allows p-code submissions since it would seem to
> allow a program (either intentionally from an
> ill-intentioned programmer or unintentionally from a bad
> programmer) to do nasty things without the downloader being
> allowed to look at the source code and look for potential
> problems first. Like "what is that system call really doing
> to my disk drive? Why is this program trying to read some
> files and then send e-mail? I thought this was just a
> plotting program." etc. etc. What guarantee is there that
> the associated m-file in the post was actually the one used
> to generate the p-code? Does the Mathworks actually check
> this and provide some protection here? I don't know.
> 
> James Tursa

I agree completely and just so Paul (and everyone else) doesn't think 
this is hypothetical I will say that this is exactly why I have never 
been even slightly inclined to download and try plt.  Not because I 
think Paul is doing something I don't like, but because it is against 
the spirit of the FEX and from it I can learn nothing.

Of course, if I don't know and trust the author I would also not run 
p-code for those other reasons as well.

-- 
Doug Schwarz
dmschwarz&ieee,org
Make obvious changes to get real email address.