javascript, networking and browsers (Re: WKD v05: DNS problem when requesting pubkey)

[Bernhard Reiter]

Am Freitag 06 April 2018 21:49:22 schrieb Ben McGinnes:
> On Thu, Apr 05, 2018 at 12:02:52PM +0200, Bernhard Reiter wrote:
> > However according to my research, code running inside  a webbrowser -
> > either from a webpage or as extension - **cannot do a DNS request** on
> > its own.
>
> Correct.

Thanks for confirming.

> JS is comnpletely oblivious to even the concept of what a network is
> and any code you've see that suggests otherwise is solely reflecting
> the mindset of the author, not the implementation of the scripting
> language.

To be fair: Almost all programming languages know nothing about what a network 
is, usually it is in their standard libaries. The standard libraries for 
server side and native javascript is just growing, just look at the 
development of nodejs. Of of course there are many libraries that know about 
networks.

> The only way around it will be both some kind of kludge and a means by
> which the browser's sandboxing will need to be circumvented, either in
> whole or in part.  When JavaScript is involved it's simply a matter of
> picking the least worst work-around.  There are no best solutions.
>
> Why do you think systems and networks admins hate the damned thing and
> have a tendency to sneer at web developers?  This right here, is
> scratching the surface of why.

*sigh* There are advantages and disadvantages to Javascript and how it is 
deployed, and there are better and worse engineers. But there is no reason to 
generally believe one way or group of persons is generally superior to 
another. 

As I've outlined in my other post: To me it makes some sense to not allow 
general networking code in browsers. (I cannot claim that know if this is a 
sufficiently good decision but at least I can see that some serious 
engineering had been done.)

Best Regards,
Bernhard
-- 
www.intevation.de/~bernhard   +49 541 33 508 3-3
Intevation GmbH, Osnabrück, DE; Amtsgericht Osnabrück, HRB 18998
Geschäftsführer Frank Koormann, Bernhard Reiter, Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 488 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
URL: <https://lists.gnupg.org/pipermail/gnupg-devel/attachments/20180409/f26a7fda/attachment.sig>