Re: Emacs Lisp's future

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Richard Stallman writes:

 > If you want to convince me that [a property list vector for
 > implicitly transmitting information across module boundaries] is a
 > problem,

I'm not trying to convince you; your evidentiary requirements are way
too high for me to satisfy in time available.

I just want to make sure that Emacs developers in general are aware
that if string properties are added to Guile itself, Emacs will be a
potential vector for attacks.  For example, by providing a "back
channel" for malicious information if Emacs is used to develop a
management interface for a web service written in Guile which directly
accesses Guile modules used in the web service.

 > you need to present sufficient arguments to outweigh the very clear
 > problem that would be caused by NOT adding property lists to
 > strings.

You misunderstand me.  Emacs obviously needs property lists on
strings.  Nobody in their right mind would suggest otherwise.

What I advocate is that string properties should be implemented by
using Guile facilities for defining types, not by changing Guile.
External modules that want to use Emacs property lists for whatever
reason can explicitly import that interface from Emacs.  However,
those properties should not be passed to non-Emacs modules implicitly.