From: "Ian Clarke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Actually it was a deficiency in the FCP specs. GenerateSVKKeypair returns
a
>> keypair without the last three bytes -- the keysize and keytype. This was
>> not accidental, although the docs are lacking in what exactly is
returned.
>So the question is whether the spec needs changing. I think it does,
>FCP should be easy to use, this is unnescessarily awkward.
(I could get cynical here and scream "SACRILEGE!!! - no-one deserves to
program to Freenet, or even use it, unless they have a masters in
cryptography", but I won't).
It's no news that I totally agree with Ian on this one.
Client interfaces need to be as simple as possible (without losing
functionality), and should not, NOT, drag the user/programmer into more
technical detail than is necessary. Failing this, it should be possible to
access a lot of functionality via a simple subset of a client interface.
That's simply a principle of good engineering.
For instance, all of us appreciate being able to program to a platform
without manually fucking around with motherboard chipsets.
I may not be a crypto expert, but over 10 years of full time programming, I
*was* respected as a damn good API designer.
It should be up to a user or programmer to decide how much or how little of
the crypto and other Freenet technical aspects they choose to learn and
understand.
Please, if you *must* drop the keysize and keytype from the returned public
key, then *please* add another FCP command, or an option within the existing
GenerateSVKKeypair command that allows for this info to be automatically
generated.
In my role as client writer, I don't give a shit about the crypto (and I
shouldn't have to) - I just want to be able to insert and retrieve keys. And
I'm sure as hell *not* going to 'buy in' to feeling technically inadequate
because of this.
The rest of FCP is great. This keypair stuff as it stands ruins an otherwise
excellent interface.
David
_______________________________________________
Devl mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://lists.freenetproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devl
