[117117] in Cypherpunks
Re: PGP source and binaries comparisons, and vain and degrading
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Petro)
Thu Aug 26 19:20:56 1999
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Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 14:35:15 -0700
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Petro <petro@suba.com>
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Reply-To: Petro <petro@suba.com>
>> "Non-trivial" as in difficult, As in time consuming. As in
>>just grab the fucking source and cc it yourself. If you are on a
>>Mac, get a copy of CodeWarrior and spend an hour learning how to
>>compile something. It's not that tough--even on a Mac.
>
>I assume you meant to type: "It's not that easy--even on a Mac." for your last
> sentence? I would agree that this is a reasonable task only if you
>already own
No--I meant what I said-that compiling from source wasn't
difficult even on a Mac.
*Comparing* binaries is easy--although a bit tougher on a
mac, it's knowing what is going on if and where they differ.
>and use the compiler used by PGP (Metrowerks in the case of the Mac version).
I wasn't aware that PGP inc. put that information up--I've
never needed PGP for anything but playing around with, and if I did,
I'd grab the source code (at this point, I'd go for OpenPGP, or
whatever it's called now) and compile it on a Unix Box where I had
more control.
>I certainly didn't mean to claim that it would be trivial for a
>non-programmer, only that the objections raised about
>optimization, library version, etc in practise have not been the
>problem you might have suspected.
In addition to not knowing that PGP released that
information, I was also thinking more generically. Most companies
don't release that information, and most people who make RPMs for
Linux Deadrat, Dumbian, and SuSick don't tell you what optimizations
and specific library versions they've made--although to be honest
most of them just type make.
>
>I do hope that as many people as possible participate in this sort
>of review process so we can elevate the level of discourse about
>which threats are real and which are fanciful.
--
Interfaces matter. You need mathematical bones; engineering muscle;
but you won't replicate without beautiful skin. Bits, transistors,
wires, code, gummint velveeta is free. Will is expensive. Gutenburg.
Smith. Ford. Moore. Postel. Steam engines were neat. Steam
engines pulling trains were amazing. Computers were neat. Computers
networked were amazing. Warning grunts are useful. The ability of a
charistmatic speaker to fuck with your head is disastrous.--Blank
Frank(anonymously)
