It occurs to me that a simpler no-library-needed way to get something like actors in Clojure would be to just send forms over the network to other nodes.
The simplest thing would be to send forms to *eval*. But that requires some serious security precautions. Like, say, authentication plus encryption of the links. Another thing would be to set up an "agent server" which receives forms the reader can read. These would *not* be sent to eval; instead, just passed through the reader (with read-eval false to close a possible security hole) and then (apply send-off (map my-resolve form)). The first element of the form should, therefore, name an agent on the target node; the next, a function that exists in the namespace where the agent server is in that node; and optional arguments to that function. If the nodes all share a common codebase then the defs and defns will be the same, including the defs of agents and the defns of functions to invoke them on. The my-resolve function is a tricky detail: it needs to resolve symbols to Vars and leave everything else alone, a kind of "weak eval". This could still be maliciously misused, by triggering arbitrary actions by arbitrary actors (enabling cheating in games, for instance) and by sending lots of CPU-heavy requests as a denial of service attack. Authentication and encryption would still be a good idea here, but not using full eval on the traffic adds another layer of protection. Someone who cracks the encryption can cheat at your MMORPG but not send, say, (System/exec "rm -rf /"). (Not running the nodes as root provides still more damage limitation, of course.) Also, handing the guys that might want to cheat the decryption key would be stupid, so this protocol would obviously be used internally by the "server" (a distributed network of game hosting machines) with some other, much less generally-capable protocol between these and clients to limit the possibilities for cheating using a nonstandard client. (Things analogous to client-side gold-farming bots or super-reflex-equipped combat bots will always be possible, of course. There's no in-principle way to be sure it's carbon rather than silicon sitting in the player's chair, other than if commands are sent absurdly fast. Even 24/7 farming for weeks without letup could be humans working in shifts.) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
