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There's a range of different ways to author & uses for dynamic code. In terms of use cases, downloaded on the fly code is definitely one example. Userscript en

There's a range of different ways to author & uses for dynamic code. In terms of use cases, downloaded on the fly code is definitely one example. Userscript engines like Greasemonkey, VioletMonkey, & TamperMonkey are all alao on the chopping block, which also allow user-edited code as well as downloaded code. There's also a huge range of uses for dynamic code in general. Data stores & engines will optimize performance by using the Function constructor[1]. Cant do that anymore: basic, sensible, multi-decade long optimizations are now off the table. Being able to use eval() to dynamically generate a complex expression- no longer allowed. It's bitterly ironic that Apple's prohibition against interpretters (a type of dynamic code) has held their platform back from allowing interesting things to run on iOS. Chrome's real rendering & js engines are blocked there. Because Apple says it's too unsafe to trust programs to do anything not statically defined, that only code that can all be fully read & understand is ok. Now here's Google & then Mozilla, bringing the exact same prohibitions against dynamic code to the web. At it's deepest heart. It's so ugly, so hypocritical, & so menacing & massive a threat to possibility, to extensions that can grow & develop. Long hope, but a deep one: I very much hope one day (far away) a semantic-web like world wide web might emerge, but if this sick knee-capping happens the browser will never be a viable place for user agency- which must be a dynamic & growable organic thingh never be tenable as a place where user agency can grow & flourish. Extensions are amazing, but if they're restricted to single-purpose little timmicks, unflexible static predefined capabilities, Google will have insured that the only thriving systems the world will get will be inside the data center. These restrictions mortally cripple user-agency, that which is most special & most dear about the web & what set it apart from conventional software applications. My open github issue[2] on this. [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Function https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe... [2] https://github.com/w3c/webextensions/issues/139 https://github.com/w3c/webextensions/issues/139

user3939382 4y ago
The basic problem is that the average non-technical user lacks the knowledge that these policies exist, much less their deleterious effects. This is the problem with some of the valid points RMS has been raising for decades. Look at dragnet surveillance- ask the average person who Snowden is. Unfortunately I don't see that changing, especially since you can see the same dynamic in (nearly?) every other industry. The industry engages in widespread practices, sometimes legitimized by corrupt laws via regulatory capture, that harm our society and everyone is too busy trying to put food on the table to notice.
- BuckRogers 4y ago
  - user3939382 4y ago
    That’s very idealistic that you think “justice” is what the US has in mind for him. If you haven’t noticed from the Assange case, the US fed gov’t rewrites the laws and creates its own definition of justice to try its best to murder anyone who exposes its crimes. If the US was interested in “justice” for Snowden it would have awarded him a Congressional medal of honor instead of hunting and trying to prosecute him.
    - BuckRogers 4y ago
      The truth would prevail. Isn’t that what the weasel was fighting for? Navalny faced your “justice”, because he’s a true and actual hero of his nation. I can assure you, any true patriot would walk down Navalny’s path. Not Edward Snowden‘s path of treason and cowardice. I have no love for Benedict Arnolds.
      - user3939382 4y ago
        The truth already came out the day his material was released. He’s been isolated from his country, culture, family, everything he knows and loves and has to fear every day will be the day the US figures out a way to kill him or bargain with Russia to hand him over to death/lifetime imprisonment via a kangaroo court. He hasn’t sacrificed enough? He’s one of the few patriots. The traitors are the ones working for and especially managing these unconstitutional illegal programs that continue to this day.
        BuckRogers 4y ago
        We don't have a kangaroo court waiting for him. This sacrificial lamb has easy street waiting for his crimes compared to Navalny. Navalny still returned home without fear, and may lose his life for it. Yet his spirit, unlike Snowden's, will live forever and cannot be killed. That's a hero vs a coward. Navalny inspires me, an American. Equating the US and Russian justice system is hilarious. We could kill any traitor, anywhere we so chose to kill one. He's safe and running from justice in Russia, but he's not safe from the blade. The government chooses to spare him. Never underestimate the long arm of Uncle Sam. I for one, think it's best that his true character is revealed through his self-imposed exile. He's too selfish to come home and bring attention to his cause. He's all about himself, and he hasn't suffered a lick, yet. He has spent a lot of time running though. And don't call him that. He's not American. Benedict Arnold died in England, hated by both the Americans and English. Even the British who benefitted from him didn't respect a man who would betray his own people. He died a traitor's death just as Snowden will.

user3939382 4y ago

The basic problem is that the average non-technical user lacks the knowledge that these policies exist, much less their deleterious effects. This is the problem with some of the valid points RMS has been raising for decades. Look at dragnet surveillance- ask the average person who Snowden is. Unfortunately I don't see that changing, especially since you can see the same dynamic in (nearly?) every other industry. The industry engages in widespread practices, sometimes legitimized by corrupt laws via regulatory capture, that harm our society and everyone is too busy trying to put food on the table to notice.

BuckRogers 4y ago
- user3939382 4y ago
  That’s very idealistic that you think “justice” is what the US has in mind for him. If you haven’t noticed from the Assange case, the US fed gov’t rewrites the laws and creates its own definition of justice to try its best to murder anyone who exposes its crimes. If the US was interested in “justice” for Snowden it would have awarded him a Congressional medal of honor instead of hunting and trying to prosecute him.
  - BuckRogers 4y ago
    The truth would prevail. Isn’t that what the weasel was fighting for? Navalny faced your “justice”, because he’s a true and actual hero of his nation. I can assure you, any true patriot would walk down Navalny’s path. Not Edward Snowden‘s path of treason and cowardice. I have no love for Benedict Arnolds.
    - user3939382 4y ago
      The truth already came out the day his material was released. He’s been isolated from his country, culture, family, everything he knows and loves and has to fear every day will be the day the US figures out a way to kill him or bargain with Russia to hand him over to death/lifetime imprisonment via a kangaroo court. He hasn’t sacrificed enough? He’s one of the few patriots. The traitors are the ones working for and especially managing these unconstitutional illegal programs that continue to this day.
      - BuckRogers 4y ago
        We don't have a kangaroo court waiting for him. This sacrificial lamb has easy street waiting for his crimes compared to Navalny. Navalny still returned home without fear, and may lose his life for it. Yet his spirit, unlike Snowden's, will live forever and cannot be killed. That's a hero vs a coward. Navalny inspires me, an American. Equating the US and Russian justice system is hilarious. We could kill any traitor, anywhere we so chose to kill one. He's safe and running from justice in Russia, but he's not safe from the blade. The government chooses to spare him. Never underestimate the long arm of Uncle Sam. I for one, think it's best that his true character is revealed through his self-imposed exile. He's too selfish to come home and bring attention to his cause. He's all about himself, and he hasn't suffered a lick, yet. He has spent a lot of time running though. And don't call him that. He's not American. Benedict Arnold died in England, hated by both the Americans and English. Even the British who benefitted from him didn't respect a man who would betray his own people. He died a traitor's death just as Snowden will.