[144471] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: End-of-chapter questions for "Practical Cryptography"?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Fri May 22 11:01:55 2009
To: Paul Hoffman <paul.hoffman@vpnc.org>
Cc: cryptography@metzdowd.com
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 10:55:17 -0400
In-Reply-To: <p06240851c63c677f4ec2@[10.20.30.158]> (Paul Hoffman's message of "Fri\, 22 May 2009 07\:34\:57 -0700")
Paul Hoffman <paul.hoffman@vpnc.org> 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 perry@piermont.com
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