Re: [pygame] Use of PyScheme for game projects

[James Hofmann <jwhinfinity@xxxxxxxxx>]

I should point out that I really wasn't intending to
suggest usage of the "safe eval" as a solution to the
problem presented, but felt it was worth presenting to
the list anyway...and got my real message confused.
For games I've implicitly decided to favor simplicity
of implementation over absolute security, for reasons
that are more ideological than technical. My thinking
is thus:

1. The untrusted code has to be explicitly downloaded
- it's not random network traffic, neither is it put
up against some immediate gateway to data like a
server. Once you break through Python, all the
restrictions are in the OS.

2. This is the exact same security issue the user
faces when running any downloaded executable currently
- without thoroughly scanning the code beforehand,
there's no telling what the program will do. So while
this solution is no *better* than running a downloaded
game, you can't construe it as being *worse*. The only
"trust" one can put in downloaded games is that of
branding and communal relationships. 

Thus my rationale is not really to be secure, but to
keep people from shooting themselves in the foot. If
they really want to do something harmful, it'll
happen. Security is, in a practical sense, a perpetual
battle, not a "do it right and it's solved forever"
kind of problem. I've read the speculations toward a
"true" safe subinterpreter in Python 3000, and I
figure that should it come along I can move the code
there without issue(other than general code breakage
stuff). Until then, I'm turning my back to the
problem, because I have put other priorities first.

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