ietf-openpgp
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Re: Outstanding question - rule on cleartext signing last line

2005-12-28 08:49:12

Jon Callas wrote:
(1) I don't think the spec should change. The reason that I don't think
it should change is that we're in last call. We want to tidy this thing
up.

That's a crazy argument. If we're in last call and changes are needed,
then what that tells us is we shouldn't be in last call, not that we
shouldn't make changes!

This argument was used in DNSSEC to squash changes that are now coming
back with a vengeance years later. All that invoking "last call so don't
touch it" did was introduce about 5 years delay into the process.

Which is not to say I care passionately about reversability. I would,
however, like to remove the ambiguity.

Can we say implementations SHOULD always add a newline, but they MAY
omit it if the plaintext ends with a newline (for backwards
compatibility)? That way nothing is broken, but future behaviour is defined.

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