Xref: utzoo gnu.emacs.help:1055 comp.emacs:9994 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!compass.com!worley From: worley@compass.com (Dale Worley) Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help,comp.emacs Subject: Re: Backdoor rumor Message-ID: <9101301553.AA00687@sn1987a.compass.com> Date: 30 Jan 91 15:53:17 GMT Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Followup-To: gnu.emacs.help Organization: Gatewayed from the GNU Project mailing list help-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu Lines: 19 From: jym@AI.MIT.EDU (Jym Dyer) Think how silly this rumor is. GNU Emacs is distributed with source. If there was a backdoor, it would be discovered right away. There is no greater security than having the source! Oh, please! This would be true only if all properties of a program could be determined easily by looking at the source. In computability theory there is a theorem that says that *no* interesting property of a program can always be determined by looking at the source. In reality, the existence of bugs shows that nothing can be determined easily by looking at the source. Dale Worley Compass, Inc. worley@compass.com -- You CAN be what you WON'T! -- "Bob"