On May 4, 2009, at 1:38 PM, Werner Koch wrote:
On Mon, 4 May 2009 17:32, dkg(_at_)fifthhorseman(_dot_)net said:
current fingerprint would be re-written as:
SHA1-0EE5BE979282D80B9F7540F1CCD2ED94D21739E9
Using a number (2) and, say, a dot as a prefix would be a better
choice.
We use algorithnm numbers anyway and OpenPGP users are used tp spell a
large row of hex digits; we would only confuse them with an S and an
H..
I like the dot, but I'd like to see the hash number in two-digit hex.
The reason is that I strongly suspect that when read out over the
phone, or written down, or transmitted in pretty much any means other
than strict cut-and-paste, the dot (or any other delimiter) will be
lost in translation. Thus, "40.ABCDEF0123456....." will become
"40ABCDEF0123456....." and we would have to play length checking games
to guess if they meant hash 4 or 40.
With 2-digit hex, "4" would be written as "04", removing any doubt.
David