Re: [Evolution] OpenPGP/GPG inline message support

[Jeffrey Stedfast <fejj ximian com>]

On Fri, 2004-05-14 at 16:06 -0500, Brian G. Peterson wrote:
> I'm writing to inquire after the status of inline OpenPGP support in
> Evolution.  Google and the archive for this list (and my current
> experience with Evolution) seem to indicate that inline OpenPGP messages
> are *still* not supported.
>
> inline support is required for full OpenPGP standards compliance

uhm... completely irrelevant. OpenPGP is the same bloody thing as
"inline pgp". they are synonymous. OpenPGP is the format for PGP
applications to implement, not MUA's. Would you really want your MUA to
implement OpenPGP? I know I wouldn't.

> , and
> almost all OpenPGP compliant mailers offer some support for inline
> encryption and signatures, if only on decrypt/verify.

if you say so...

> The current draft OpenPGP RFC (RFC2440bis) will almost certainly contain
> additional implementation details to make it easier for users to
> indicate in thier keys which mail format that they wish others to use
> when communicating with them.
>
> RFC 3156 (OpenPGP/MIME) neither obsoletes nor modifies RFC 2440, but
> rather offers a complimentary implementation of RFC 2440, and could be
> said to extend that standard to clearly define how to use OpenPGP with MIME.

again, irrelevant. mailers send MIME, hence they should use rfc3156.

rfc2440 is for pgp programs to implement, not MUA's. rfc3156 describes
how to use use rfc2440 with MIME. MUA's send MIME. 

Conclusion: MUA's are meant to send rfc3156 compliant messages.

by definition, if you send rfc3156 messages, you also comply with
rfc2440 :-)

> The fact is that inline support is required for the largest
> interoperability, and is not hard to implement.

does this mean you'll send us a patch? :-)

>   Not supporting it
> causes huge interoperability problems with Microsoft's Outlook products,

Outlook doesn't support PGP by itself, and most corporate Outlook users
that use encryption/signatures don't use PGP anyway. They use S/MIME.

> and with many versions of Commercial PGP.

funny that commercial PGP mailer-plugins doesn't follow the IETF
standards...

> I'd love an update on the status of inline support.

it's not implemented and it's not going to make it into 2.0 either
(we're feature frozen). There are also no future plans to implement it
(then again, we have no plans for after the 2.0 release, so that isn't
saying much...)

End Of Thread (since nothing useful can come out of further discussion
of this topic)

Jeff

PS. if you are offering to implement the feature, take the discussion to
evolution-hackers ximian com and we will help guide you.

-- 
Jeffrey Stedfast
Evolution Hacker - Novell, Inc.
fejj ximian com  - www.novell.com