Re: [DotGNU]IVM Project

[David Sugar]

Yes, IVM is a good hack, and it is good to see it finally under the GPL 
which means it will get wider use.  It is not operating as a "typesafe" 
VM the way Java and IL are, or, as noted, offering a "sandbox", but is 
simply a generic and particularly well implimented virtual/portable 
object code system.  As such it does have value and could be quite 
useful for certain kinds of applications.

Carsten Kuckuk wrote:

> Daniel,
>
> I printed out the spec last night and read it on the commuter train back
> home. The IVM team essentially created a specification for a Motorola 68000
> like 32 bit processor, assigned 16 bit opcodes to instructions and
> implemented an interpreter for it as well as an adoption of the gcc
> compiler.
>
> Advantages:
> + Portable
> + It works
> + Very fast
>
> Disadvantages:
> - No separation of data and code
> - Interface to the underlying operating system is POSIX
> - No built-in security, not even a sandbox
>
> My assessment:
> o Good piece of Engineering: It's there, it works, it solves a problem, it's
> GPLed, it's tested.
> o In order to be used as one of the VMs for DotGnu, security needs to be
> added. As one of the rules in secure programming is that you can never add
> security to a system, but that it needs to be designed into it, I don't know
> if that is possible.
> o For my personal taste it's too close to real untyped assembly language.
>
> Carsten Kuckuk
>
>
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