Paul Hoffman <[email protected]> writes: > Greetings again. I'm helping someone new to the field learn > cryptography. He's a book-learner, and is starting with Ferguson & > Schneier "Practical Cryptography". I would love to give him some > things to think about after each chapter to make sure he's thinking > about the big picture. > > Has anyone on this list used the book to teach a class? If so, did you > create a list of discussion questions? Or, do people know profs who > have used the book to teach? Any pointers are appreciated.
Not quite an answer to your question, but it brought this to mind for me. I taught crypto for a while in an academic setting, though the last time was about seven or eight years ago. I found that the available texts were kind of frustrating to use. I used "Applied Cryptography" and the "Handbook" because neither alone was good enough, but truth be told, even together there were topics I wanted to go over (like modern cryptanalysis) which were entirely or almost entirely missing. "Practical Cryptography" is a bit too practical if one is trying to teach people academic fundamentals rather than just teach people about what they need to know to be a "user" of the technology. I may be mistaken but I'm not aware of any significantly superior alternatives. The field really needs a new, thorough textbook suitable for a one year course, or maybe an up to date one semester intro text and an up to date one semester textbook on modern cryptanalysis. Perry -- Perry E. Metzger [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [email protected]
