Hi Peter, Let me start off by saying thanks for your reply.
On Sat, Oct 26, 2013 at 4:23 AM, Peter Dettman < peter.dett...@bouncycastle.org> wrote: > Hi Jeff, > Hopefully I can allay your concerns that the project has been abandoned. > Comments inline: > > > On 25/10/2013 9:25 AM, Jeff Stedfast wrote: > >> Hello, >> >> I've been lurking for the past 2 weeks or so and the list seems pretty >> quiet for the most part. I've also noticed that the github repository is >> more-or-less inactive and that makes me rather sad :-( >> > Yes, it makes us sad how little attention we've been able to give it over > the last 2 years. > > > >> Who are the developers that are actively still hacking on the project? >> > I've been the most active developer on the C# version in recent years, but > a full-time job occupies most of my time, and I've been working on the Java > build more of late. Some of that work is in the process of being ported, as > others have noted. I fully understand the full time job commitment. MimeKit is only 1 of my side projects, and I really only get weekends to work on it. Of course, if I had a family and kids, I probably wouldn't get anywhere near as much time as I do :-) > > > >> What can be done to help? >> >> Is development taking place on github? Or is it happening elsewhere? >> > Yes, we've only recently moved to github, but that's the preferred place > to submit contributions. Okay, cool, this makes things easy for me. > > > >> I noticed that there is an outstanding bug filed for the C# version of >> BouncyCastle to implement S/MIME support that is apparently waiting on a >> javamail replacement on .NET. >> >> If that is the case, then perhaps that is the best way that I can >> contribute to this project. >> >> I've currently implemented a C# MIME library called MimeKit on GitHub: >> http://github.com/jstedfast/**MimeKit<http://github.com/jstedfast/MimeKit> >> >> I have loads of experience writing MIME libraries/parsers spanning back >> more than a decade and have implemented PGP/MIME in Evolution and in my >> personal side-project, GMime (a MIME parser written in C). I also >> contributed to and/or wrote the S/MIME support in both of those products as >> well as implementing S/MIME support in MimeKit recently. >> >> However, the problem I am now facing is that Mono's System.Security does >> not implement all of the CMS APIs and is missing some of the meat in the >> X509Certificate2 APIs as well, which is what has brought me to >> BouncyCastle. Presently, MimeKit's implementation of S/MIME only works on >> Windows, but I want it to work on Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android (for those >> using Xamarin.iOS and/or Xamarin.Android). Windows Phone 8 would also be >> nice, but I suspect that would be doable using Microsoft's APIs. >> >> Since I'm also interested in adding PGP/MIME (rfc2015, 3156, and whatever >> the latest update to those specs are), I've been trying to find a nice and >> elegant way of doing that in C#. Sadly, C# APIs do not provide a nice way >> to do IPC with programs like gnupg, so my options are limited if I want >> portability... again leading me to BouncyCastle for the OpenPGP >> implementation. >> >> >> I guess what I want to know is: >> >> 1. Would this be something the Bouncy Castle development team would be >> interested in? >> > Definitely. I had given up hope of ever being able to port the S/MIME > stuff from the Java build (or to provide equivalent functionality in some > way). Okay, cool. MimeKit is licensed under MIT/X11 for maximum flexibility as far as allowing anyone to use it. > > > >> 2. Is the Bouncy Castle development team even still around in any real >> capacity? If the project is more-or-less dead, I'll probably just fork >> Bouncy Castle to make whatever modifications I need and continue on my way. >> If, at some later point, development starts back up again, they are free to >> use MimeKit (and I highly recommend that you do, because every other .NET >> MIME parser that exists currently is broken beyond repair). >> > Oh yes, we're still around. Glad to hear. > > > >> 3. JavaMail is more than just a MIME library. MimeKit is not. Is this a >> problem? >> > No, not a problem. Okay, cool. > > > >> I am considering working on a "MailKit" library which would be built on >> top of MimeKit in order to add IMAP, POP, and SMTP support but I don't >> necessarily want to commit myself to doing that alone. I should also note >> that MimeKit and my plans for MailKit are not an identical API to JavaMail >> (I don't know if that matters or not), similar to an extent, but based more >> on a C library I had been working on before I threw my hands in the air and >> decided that even if I were to finish, I'd never want to write another mail >> client in C/C++. (This is what has led to the development of MimeKit which >> is loosely based on my GMime library). >> > I'd say just leave the MailKit bit open and aim for the MimeKit bit first. > Ideally others will build on top of it, or help you to do so. > Yea, my aim is definitely MimeKit first. > > Please note that for substantial submissions we need an email explicitly > agreeing to release things under our license. > That won't be a problem. Jeff
