[cap-talk] Non-Delegatable Authorities in Capability Systems

[Karp, Alan H]

Jed wrote:

A whole bunch of stuff I agree with, but I'm less outraged than Jed.  I don't think of this paper as presenting a practical mechansim as much as disproving another "capability impossibility", much the way caretaker debunks non-revocability.  In that sense, the paper presents a political solution, rather than a technical one.  It addresses people who say "I can't use capabilities because I need to block delegation." even though the systems they build never actually do.  I also appreciate the beauty of the new pattern, much the way I appreciate Gothic architecture while not wanting to design my own home that way.

________________________
Alan Karp
Principal Scientist
Virus Safe Computing Initiative
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
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