At Tue, 7 Apr 1998 05:01:07 -0400, Jonathan Adams <jonadams@netcom.com> wrote:
>One piece of the issue I do not fully grasp is the difference in
>philosophies between KeyKos and EROS. In KeyKos, Sense keys are
>restricted and DISCRIM has open access, while in EROS, Discrim is
>restricted and Sense keys can be created by anyone.
The KeyKOS stand on these issues is based on the following quotes from the manual: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~KeyKOS/agorics/KeyKos/Gnosis/1.html">http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~KeyKOS/agorics/KeyKos/Gnosis/1.html
Design note: This call on DISCRIM was designed to give you only information that you could have gotten by other means {albeit destructively and/or statistically}. This statement is valid at every level of description that excludes the domain tool and sense keys {and the extended kernel keys}.
We have chosen to restrict access to sense keys for the reasons given in
(p1,sense-int). Come to us if you think that you need them. [which leads
you to:
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~KeyKOS/agorics/KeyKos/Gnosis/34.html#sense-int]
Design Problem with Sense Keys
There is a problem with sense keys that we have not yet overcome; how does one build synthetic nodes {(p3,synnodes)}?
The problem occurs when a real sense key is used to make a
weakened copy of a synthetic node key. The synthetic
node key is really a segment key with a keeper {because node
keys can be used in memory trees} and the operation
makes it no-call. The resulting key cannot serve as a synthetic
sense key because the keeper can no longer be called.
This problem seems to me to be an inherent conflict of principles:
The builder of the synthetic node cannot do his thing without
putting himself in a position to observe key fetches.
The agency responsible for the key to the node being a
sense key rather than a node key is concerned about just
such observations {or at least that no report be made to
inappropriate places}.
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