There is a difference. With Basic Encoding Rules (BER), you have many
many ways to encode a single object in binary (or octet) form. For
example, if you have a list of object, you can order them in any way
you like, and the encoding is correct.
Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER), on the other hand, sets a single
method of coding any one ASN.1 object. DER is a subset of BER, i.e.,
any object encoded using DER can be read using BER, but not the other
way around.
IMHO, If you are doing ASN.1 coding, you should encode using DER, but
decode using BER, just to be safe.
Does this help?
-derek
Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, G MIT Media Laboratory
Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board (SIPB)
Home page: http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/warlord/home_page.html
warlord(_at_)MIT(_dot_)EDU PP-ASEL N1NWH PGP key available