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Re: [openpgp] Character encodings

2015-03-17 22:48:20
Phillip Hallam-Baker <phill(_at_)hallambaker(_dot_)com> writes:
On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 3:44 PM, Jon Callas <jon(_at_)callas(_dot_)org> wrote:
One of the things that OpenPGP doesn't do very well that needs to be fixed
is layering.
[...]
Just get rid of the notion of text. Make it be all binary. Push the
problem up a layer in the software stack -- they have to deal with it
anyway, and all OpenPGP can do is make it worse.

+1

+2.  The rest of the world has made do with the existing infrastructure for
getting data from A to B, one way or another, without civilisation collapsing.
PGP isn't a universal character-format translator, it's an encryption app, and
should restrict itself to that.  Leave the character-set issues to other
layers where they belong.

(If all else fails, make the contents of the PGP message a MIME body like
S/MIME does, so the processing-flow is "MIME message" (S/MIME data) -> filter
implementing the crypto (in decoded, binary form) -> "MIME message"
(plaintext) back out to the mail app).

Peter.
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