-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Mark M. (markm@voicenet.com) wrote on Sat, 23 Nov 1996 22:24:41 -0500 (EST)

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Note that I personally have not done very much of the actual coding on this version. However if bugs are reported or constructive suggestions for improvements made I will pass them on to the individual(s) who have done the bulk of the work to make this release possible. I am assured that continuing support will be provided.

I found two bugs so far:

This version doesn't recognize either .pgprc or pgp.ini as valid config file names. It is very minor, but this functionality is stated in the manual.

I couldn't find any mention of either filename in -our- docs. Please point out the reference if I missed it. I think this was an MIT "feature". I don't plan to copy it.

One of my favorite options, +makerandom, isn't supported in this version. This is an undocumented option, but it is useful in many situations.

Not as useful as you might think. A bug has been reported in the MIT version that +makerandom produces -weak- pseudo-random output, as (I am told) can be verified by just generating a large "random" file and viewing it with a hex viewer, looking for regular patterns. I don't know if this was ever fixed in Stale's version. This bug does not produce a weakness in the normal functions of MIT or Stale's PGP. MIT heavily rewrote the random number functions for their versions of PGP and the +makerandom feature depends on this rewrite. I did not want to try to import "mass quantities" of code from MIT both to respect their copyright and to maintain to some degree the independence of the MIT-derived and 2.3a-derived versions to that a bug in one might not be reproduced in the other. For Random numbers up to 24 bytes (192 bits), just use a -copy- of RANDSEED.BIN. For a longer random file, just encrypt (either RSA or conventional IDEA) a file a little longer than the file desired. Throw away a few hundred bytes from the start and end. The result will be just as strongly random as +makerandom even without the current bug.

This version uses +version_byte instead of +Legal_Kludge, but I consider that a feature. I haven't had time to experiment with the "Charset:" header. One other minor problem is that ClearSig doesn't default to "on". This could cause some frustration with new users.

I haven't tried to imlpement the "Charset" header and probably won't. If this feature is important to you, use Stale's version. I will look into this for the next version, but no promises. Clearsig is working correctly as we document it. Another MIT change. It would be more work to change the documentation than the code, but I will consider this for the next release.

Other then that, it's just fine.

Thanks for your constructive criticism and comments. Steve Crompton 100645.1716@compuserve.com (preferred) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i Comment: Requires PGP version 2.6 or later. iQEVAwUBMp14FhRHWQsRmI2RAQHndggAgNdcOqya2NPX+8KOkoj1qoYnGBRprREK t0l3sK2HHqUQwTwKSkW5ugD898kG26HjCVlMsqfgQVcw+3nAhZgU/t7MCU9/orD8 yUc9vtXr/C4lLJHTtDGVpjPfRAJpV0m0myDwoqXZo4gTrkoQG43mKaE4eLv9qcl4 zGv4fMv/lh7hUwfUsZ6c7ULGPfKeYtknO1Hh3gKYX6HJPz5Qki2toIdH8qxpw51v CC/Q/MLxLQUGYH/jdHqvUSSD0G1QIu/D/LlL9VaUtPJemqPOuBGmk+ywvE7AAfNG uEnO/AumU3j1yPnFXqv5pUKGxP1gKbMyKR8lrEwWcrDapaiC6mW4oQ== =qk2B -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----