Re: Guile

[Daniel Hartwig]

[Off topic for guile-sources@, please continue at address@hidden

On 2 December 2012 04:30, address@hidden
<address@hidden> wrote:
> Will Guile be a operating system?

Hi

Guile provides an environment for programs to run; those programs can
be written in a variety of high- and low-level languages.  In this
regard it is quite similar to a Smalltalk environment, the Common
Language Runtime [1], the Java Runtime Environment, and other
virtual machines.

There are interfaces for common tasks such as managing processes,
network communication, file storage, etc..

There is nothing that prevents implementing facilities to manage
desktop sessions, disk quotas, software, etc. in Guile, however,
that is really beyond the scope of the project proper.  Guile
provides facilities to create and run programs, it does not attempt
to implement any particular user or system management facilities.

Perhaps one day we will see a system like this in Guile, perhaps
a port of GNU Hurd.

[1] <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8bs2ecf4.aspx>

> Can it be implemented into security encryption software into it's
> own opperating system GUILE, UNIX, LINUX, OSx, Windows.....?

Your question is not clear.  You can write encryption software in
Guile, certainly.  You could also embed a Guile process in to some
existing encryption software.

However, I suppose that you actually mean whether can Guile be used
to implement security and access restrictions for users and programs.
In short, yes, it can, but again, not really within the scope of the
project.

The security model provided by Guile is that inherent to it's primary
language Scheme.  This is a capability model [2], where the reference
to an object contains the authority to act on that object in
particular ways.

If this is a topic of interest to you I highly recommend to read the
Rees dissertation [3].

[2] <http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CapabilitySecurityModel>
[3] <http://mumble.net/~jar/pubs/secureos/>

> can i use it to make a software piece similar to firegpg or gpg4win
> with everything like the clip-board are build directly into each
> binary.

Probably.  Though what do you mean, “the clip-board are build directly
into each binary”?

Regards