Re: LISP security query

[Barry Margolin <Margolin at MIT-Multics>]

I suppose one way to keep the insides of a program fairly secret is to
compile the function.  Unfortunately, I don't know of ANY language which
handles security IN the language.  Usually, security is handled in the
operating system, i.e. the Multics system has a very robust system of
Access Control Lists, which specify who can access a file.  In such a
system, the language has very little to do with the security.

As for your p[roblem about passwords, the whole idea of passwords is
that the person running the program should have to type the password in.
If you put the password in a program, in ANY language, you are
compromising it and the security it tries to maintain, since anybody who
uses your program has access to the file.  Inn addition, in any
languager, someone can look at the source and figure out what the
password is.

I don't think this is a LISP problem.

                                        barmar