adien revised this gist . Go to revision
1 file changed, 28 insertions
claude_explain_orthogonally.md(file created)
| @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ | |||
| 1 | + | ## Prompt: | |
| 2 | + | help me understand what "orthogonally" means in below context | |
| 3 | + | ||
| 4 | + | But there's a corner case that can be somewhat confusing here, and it's one that I managed to crash into multiple times when I was implementing some code that works with this. Keys can be "possessed" by a process, and have permissions that are granted to the possessor orthogonally to any permissions granted to the user or group that owns the key. | |
| 5 | + | ||
| 6 | + | ## Response: | |
| 7 | + | Let me break this down in the context of system permissions and keys. | |
| 8 | + | ||
| 9 | + | When something is done "orthogonally" in technical contexts, it means it operates independently or perpendicular to another aspect - like two systems or sets of rules that work completely separately from each other without affecting each other. | |
| 10 | + | ||
| 11 | + | In this specific case about key permissions: | |
| 12 | + | ||
| 13 | + | 1. There's one set of permissions based on who owns the key (user/group ownership) | |
| 14 | + | 2. There's a separate set of permissions given to whoever currently possesses/holds the key | |
| 15 | + | 3. These two sets of permissions operate completely independently of each other | |
| 16 | + | ||
| 17 | + | To use an analogy: Think of a house key. There's: | |
| 18 | + | ||
| 19 | + | * The legal owner of the house (ownership permissions) | |
| 20 | + | * The current person holding the key (possession permissions) | |
| 21 | + | ||
| 22 | + | These are "orthogonal" because: | |
| 23 | + | ||
| 24 | + | * The owner's rights to the house exist regardless of who has the key | |
| 25 | + | * The key-holder's ability to enter exists regardless of who owns the house | |
| 26 | + | * One set of rights doesn't affect or interfere with the other | |
| 27 | + | ||
| 28 | + | So in the code context, when they say permissions are granted "orthogonally," they mean the possessor's permissions exist and function completely independently from the owner's permissions - they're separate systems that don't influence each other. | |
Newer
Older