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I find this aspect of their docs totally confusing. Cap'N Proto is mentioned everywhere but without context. I went looking for more info on it and it looks lik

by api 10y ago

I find this aspect of their docs totally confusing. Cap'N Proto is mentioned everywhere but without context. I went looking for more info on it and it looks like a serialization format like Google Protocol Buffers, but in the Sandstorm docs it's peppered everywhere in a way that makes it sound like magic pixie dust. How does a serialization format solve all these problems? Not saying it doesn't, just that this needs to be explained conceptually. In reading the docs I can never seem to grasp what the key invention is. How is this different from a Docker host with a gateway? The repeated invocation of Cap'N Proto also gives the impression that I would have to rewrite my entire app for this, but the number of familiar apps obviously means this isn't the case.

kentonv 10y ago
Cap'n Proto isn't really the magic that makes everything work, it's just a communications layer that is designed to facilitate Sandstorm's security model -- namely, Capability-Based Security. Here's some relevant links: https://sandstorm.io/how-it-works#capabilities https://sandstorm.io/how-it-works#capabilities https://sandstorm.io/news/2014-12-15-capnproto-0.5 https://sandstorm.io/news/2014-12-15-capnproto-0.5 Note that Sandstorm does not require that apps store their data in Cap'n Proto format. Rather, the app communicates to the outside world via Cap'n Proto. Also note that many other protocols -- especially HTTP -- can be layered on top of Cap'n Proto, allowing apps that don't know anything about Cap'n Proto to operate. Here's how HTTP-over-Cap'n-Proto is defined, BTW: https://github.com/sandstorm-io/sandstorm/blob/master/src/sandstorm/web-session.capnp https://github.com/sandstorm-io/sandstorm/blob/master/src/sa... The key advantage of using Cap'n Proto is that it allows Sandstorm to be aware of all of the connections that exist between apps, so that it can tell the user which apps are talking to which other apps and how those apps discovered each other, and give them the opportunity to revoke those connections.
- deleted 10y ago
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by api 10y ago

kentonv 10y ago

Cap'n Proto isn't really the magic that makes everything work, it's just a communications layer that is designed to facilitate Sandstorm's security model -- namely, Capability-Based Security. Here's some relevant links: https://sandstorm.io/how-it-works#capabilities https://sandstorm.io/how-it-works#capabilities https://sandstorm.io/news/2014-12-15-capnproto-0.5 https://sandstorm.io/news/2014-12-15-capnproto-0.5 Note that Sandstorm does not require that apps store their data in Cap'n Proto format. Rather, the app communicates to the outside world via Cap'n Proto. Also note that many other protocols -- especially HTTP -- can be layered on top of Cap'n Proto, allowing apps that don't know anything about Cap'n Proto to operate. Here's how HTTP-over-Cap'n-Proto is defined, BTW: https://github.com/sandstorm-io/sandstorm/blob/master/src/sandstorm/web-session.capnp https://github.com/sandstorm-io/sandstorm/blob/master/src/sa... The key advantage of using Cap'n Proto is that it allows Sandstorm to be aware of all of the connections that exist between apps, so that it can tell the user which apps are talking to which other apps and how those apps discovered each other, and give them the opportunity to revoke those connections.

deleted 10y ago
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