3 Feb
2025
3 Feb
'25
11:36 a.m.
> On Feb 3, 2025, at 2:08 PM, Donald Whittemore via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> I am an old mainframe guy. I could give you my COBOL deck of cards or the compile
listing. You could pour through the code looking for nefarious/malicious code. I then hand
you the object deck. You have no idea if it matches the code you looked at. The only way
you could be sure is to compile the code I gave you and use your own object deck.
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
Open source, properly defined, means not just that you
can see the code but that you have the possibility of building it. If DeepSeek is
advertised as open source but you can't create your own executable, that's clearly
false advertising.
The language doesn't matter so long as it's an available one. If you don't
know it you can learn. For example, you could write open source code in COBOL, that's
perfectly valid. Not a whole lot of people are left who can check your work, but anyone
who wants to can learn the necessary basics.
BTW, strictly speaking you should also suspect the compiler. See "Reflections on
trusting trust".
paul
There is, or was, a COBOL compiler "ported" (prob'ly just keywords and
messages translated) to chinese.
Although it is doubtful that Deepseek was written in COBOL, it
nevertheless is possible.
That deck would be difficult to even source enough blank cards for. :-)