[Python-Dev] python-dev Summary for 2003-03-01 through 2003-03-15

[Ben Laurie]

Zooko wrote:
>>Capabilities can loosely be thought of like bound methods.  Security with
>>capabilities is done based on possession; if you hold a reference to an
>>object you can use that object.
> 
> 
> No -- capabilities (as envisioned for Python) are references.  Whether a 
> reference to an object, to a bound method, or to a function doesn't matter.
> 
> Note that it isn't that capabilities are "like" references, it is that 
> capabilities *are* references.  Every reference is a capability.  Every 
> capability is a reference.

I should note that this is a new (and good) idea, not one that we've 
previously expressed. And, of course, they are references with 
restrictions, which will be spelt out in the PEP.

Cheers,

Ben.

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