Re: [Evolution] New lock icon implies authentic sig

[Miles Lane <miles stomata megapathdsl net>]

On Wed, 2001-10-24 at 07:36, Dan Winship wrote:
> On Wed, 2001-10-24 at 09:55, Mike Leckey, Jr. wrote:
> > I received a signed message that I did not have the key for.  The small
> > padlock was in a locked state, implying a good signature.
>
> The question-mark in the icon is supposed to imply "unknown".
>
> > If the message cannot be proven authentic, how about making the first
> > smaller lock broken as well as the second larger one w/details?
>
> It doesn't try to verify it until you click.
>
> The issue is that the previous completely-static PGP verification UI was
> trivially spoofable by just sending someone an HTML message containing
> the right graphics.
>
> In the new system, you don't get any information about whether the sig
> is good or not until you click on the lock, which is something that
> can't be emulated with the parts of HTML that GtkHTML supports.

On the plus side, I really like the look of the new icon.  I also
like the smaller size.  I have a minor feature request for post-1.0.
It would be cool if, instead of having clicking on the icon only
expand the information view, it would act as a toggle.  This way
clicking on the icon would expand to show the signature details,
but clicking on it again would shrink back down to only show the
abbreviated info.  As Dan has pointed out, it would be better if
the new, smaller icon was made into several icons that differentiate
between validated and unvalidated signatures.

Another consideration is that the current lock icons seem to indicate
encryption, which isn't actually the case.  Almost all the messages
are not encrypted.  The digital signature only indicates that a public
key is attached.  It does not even indicate whether the key is trusted
or not, which is probably what most of us would really care about,
anyhow.  The current icons indicate whether a key is a valid key,
not a trusted key.

        Miles