[Opensim-dev] Should the core OpenSim distribution carry manyscripting languages?

[Kyle Hamilton]

About the only thing that I'd vote to add to the distributed code
would be a mechanism to take CLR assembly.  This would allow all
potential languages to compile to a singular low-level language that
almost everything would be able to support, regardless of whether it
could be adequately expressed in C#.

(The verifier can work on anything that doesn't have an 'unsafe' block
in it, and if you're willing to allow anyone to upload unsafe blocks
you're more daring than me.)

Every other compiler in that case would have a singular target that
they could go for.  The downside would be, then, that the expressive
(i.e. precompiled) code would not be uploaded to the sim.

-Kyle H

On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 5:59 AM, Kurt Taylor <krtaylor at us.ibm.com> wrote:
> Agreed, I'd vote to only ship LSL. Maybe C#. Everything else optional.
> CPANish repository would be perfect.
>
> krtaylor - Kurt Taylor
>
>
> opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de wrote on 06/01/2008 10:45:48 PM:
>
>> I'm personally quite in favour of us developing a CPAN-like repository
>> for OpenSim modules. To me it makes a very good deal of sense.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Adam
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de
>> [mailto:opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de] On Behalf Of Justin
>> Clark-Casey
>> Sent: Sunday, 1 June 2008 8:44 PM
>> To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
>> Subject: [Opensim-dev] Should the core OpenSim distribution carry
>> manyscripting languages?
>>
>> Hi there,
>>
>> Last week, Kinoc was kind enough to write an implementation of Yield
>> Prolog where YP is translated into underlying C# for compilation (in the
>>
>> same manner as our current LSL support).  This patch was included in
>> OpenSim in r4927.
>>
>> I have nothing against Prolog (admittedly I have never had the chance to
>>
>> pick up) and certainly nothing against Kinoc.  However, I am concerned
>> that by including many scripting languages in the OpenSim core
>> distribution (if Prolog, why not Javascript, Ruby, Python, etc, etc.) we
>>
>> incur more negatives than positives.  Firstly, I'm concerned that a
>> proportion of this code (particularly that which no core committer has
>> an interest in) will at some point slip into decay, particularly if the
>> original contributor has moved on to other things.  We've already seen
>> this happen with other areas of the code, such as the MSSQL database
>> support.
>>
>> Secondly, if individual language modules do need to change in response
>> to other OpenSim changes without a decay option (for example, in order
>> that they can still compile), this places a higher burden on the core
>> committers and makes it more costly to enhance the codebase in general.
>>
>> Thirdly, I'm concerned that the more code we have of this nature
>> (particular code which compiles script into c#), the more potential
>> security holes we have.  This isn't too much of a concern right now but
>> will be come more of an issue in the future.
>>
>> Therefore, I would argue that OpenSimulator should only include in its
>> core distribution support for a few scripting languages.  In my opinion
>> these would be LSL, maybe C# and possibly one other (maybe Python).
>> Support for other languages would come as optional plugins, available
>> either directly from the author or from some satellite repository
>> (perhaps similar to Perl's CPAN or PHP's PEAR).  I would personally
>> prefer to see the core OpenSim distribution kept relatively lean and
>> mean.
>>
>> If necessary, I am happy to make any necessary infrastructure changes to
>>
>> make language plugins possible/easier (which probably also means making
>> much needed enhancements to the plugin system).
>>
>> What do other people think?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> --
>> justincc
>> Justin Clark-Casey
>> http://justincc.wordpress.com
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