At 11:49 AM 4/30/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:
An interesting situation for the ITARs, if they try to restrict bignum classes, for example. A class-based system, if done correctly (in whatever language, e.g., C++ or Java), should have _most_ of the hard crypto work already implemented in classes and methods (for bignums, modular exponentiation, etc.), with the final crypto program much more easily implemented and exported.
Certain languages, e.g. Smalltalk, and I believe lisp and scheme, have bignums as a built-in type. (Or more specifically, their integer types are limited in size only by available memory.) I believe these languages are freely exportable. Your problem stays here in the good ol' USA. You can't implement RSA directly in these languages (I assume RSA in perl has the same problem), because of the patent restrictions. Yet another reason to buy a T-shirt. Regards - Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bill Frantz | The CDA means | Periwinkle -- Computer Consulting (408)356-8506 | lost jobs and | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz@netcom.com | dead teenagers | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA