From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 18:14:21 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: The Joy of Java
Message-ID: <adaae2b906021004f53b@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 10:45 PM 4/29/96, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>Scott Brickner writes:
>> I don't understand what you mean by "insufficiently powerful".  It's as
>> expressively powerful as most high-level languages, and computationally
>> Turing equivalent.  It's lack of power seems entirely in the performance
>> arena, which may be solved, eventually.
>
>Java applications can't save files to disk or use data files on
>disk. If you were, for instance, buying two CPU weeks of idle time on
>some machines, you would need stuff like checkpointing or the ability
>to save intermediate results.

Java applications _can_ save files to disk, and read them.

Further, even the presently-more-constrained applets can retrieve certain
types of files. For example, "getImage" and "getAudioClip" methods.

I mention this point for two reasons.

First, it says the applet model is not forever and totally blocked from
reading disk files. (And I would not be surprised to see additional file
retrieval methods "allowed." To be sure, this raises more and more security
issues to look at, but TANSTAAFL.)

Second, the relevance for providing sources of entropy for Java applets. I
haven't looked in detail, but I'll be willing to bet quite a bit that
someone has already or soon will run a QuickCam video input, not to mention
sound input, in a Java applet, and that this could easily be used as a
source of entropy bits.

--Tim

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
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