Depending on the platform, you are looking at a Developer to understand
Interbase SQL,
a Client Language (such as php, perl, Delphi) and a language that is cross
platform enough to be compilable and loadable on the different Interbase
platforms.

A loadable module is only nessessary if you can not have the solution as a
part of the main database.
Interbase has the power to do all the security we would ever need without ever
recompiling the product or relying on third party modules.

Most Interbase developers use RAD tools to create thier programs. They know
enough Delphi to create a series of forms and they are just learning the
concept of Client Server. If they need to learn another language like C or
somthing like it to add a simple change to security, would make them look
elsewhere for their database.

Interbases Server Side programming language is fast enough and powerful enough
to do the job with just a few changes, yet it is simple enough that any
begginer can read the code and understand what is going on.

The only thing that would benefit from a loadable module is encrypting the
data stream between the client and the server. This can be easily set up with
secure pipes - already available on *nix environments and should not be too
difficult to setup for windows (if not done already).

Any change to the way we handle security needs to be both easy to maintain (by
the end user as well as the IB developers) and have applications beyond
security itself. IB has become our favorite database because Jim saw beyond
the obvious quick patch fixes used with locking and transaction handling
became the IB standard. Any change made to IB needs to fully understand the
implications, not just to the immediate need, but to the long term need of the
users. (and this means supporting platforms that do not support loadable
modules)

best regards

Dalton

Jim Starkey wrote:

> At 09:47 AM 4/27/00 -0600, Tim Uckun wrote:
> >
> >You could also have a loadable module like apache. Also you could even
> >have a build options so that people can specify their authentication when
> >they compile. ./configure --with-pam --with-kerberos etc.
> >
>
> Specifying the plug-in as a loadable library is a very good thing.
> I hate the idea of requiring users to compile code on-site as part
> of installation. Besides, it is perfectly reasonable for different
> databases on the same system use different security policies. Having
> to maintain multiple copies of Interbase (or any product) is more
> pain that we should consider inflicting.
>
> Not all platforms support loadable libraries. The simple and
> satisfying answer is that platforms that don't support loadable
> libraries don't get configurable security. Pox on 'em.
>
> Jim Starkey
>
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