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0 pointsekimekim12y ago0 comments

Are you also suggesting that the kernel provide a "great implementation" of SHA? Of SSL? Of https? Where do you draw the line?

There's no reason for the kernel to provide standard library functions. In fact, I'd argue that syscalls should be reserved for only actions that cannot be done wholly in userspace (futex is a good example of this). The current model of "hardware randomness to seed a PRNG" makes sense. It is up to the userspace libraries to provide good implementations.

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tptacek12y ago· 1 in thread

I would draw the line somewhere between SHA and SSL. Next question? ;)

azinman212y ago

Exactly. I thought it was pretty clear that I was talking about the kernel providing great crypto (read: random) by default for the things it already provides.

Similarly there's a need for great "APIs/frameworks/design patterns" for what the kernel doesn't provide. I predict over the next 5 years this will become a far bigger priority in how people develop software and thus use libraries.

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