[Edu-sig] java vs. python....

[Kirby Urner]

At 01:59 PM 9/7/2002 +0800, Ronald Mangaliag wrote:
>i dont really know if this is the proper forum... but forgive me for this
>question...
>
>security wise, which one is better... java or python???

Depends in part what you mean by security.  Some kinds of security
are more the responsibility of the operating system kernel than
the responsibility of any particular process designed for user
space.

Certainly Java has lots more built in security classes, inherited
by the Applet class and so on.  It was designed from the ground up
to allow clients to safely download and run code over the internet.

One shouldn't be lulled into complacency though:  standalone Java
programs have as much power to be malicious as any.  That's where
a certification authority comes in:  you want to know where a
program came from, and whether to trust this source, before you
give it the OK to run on your CPU.

But maybe that's not what you meant be security.

If you're running your programs on the server side, then Python
may be the way to go.

Python is often used in-house, where employees mostly trust one
another not to be malicious.  If you mangle class methods or
properties to make them private, it's more to make the code
readable/understandable, than it is to frustrate some would-be
cracker.

Kirby