From: edgar@spectrx.saigon.com (Edgar W. Swank)
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 92 00:53:59 PST
To: Cypherpunks          <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Re: Signing ASCII text
Message-ID: <L2kewB4w165w@spectrx.saigon.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I was able to verify Hal Finney's signed plaintext message posted here
on Dec 23 with a good signature.  Hal says he prepared the original
plaintext with no trailing blanks.  The editor I use removes trailing
blanks whenever it saves text to disk.  So there could have been
trailing blanks in the plaintext I received (which would have spoiled
the signature match) put there by ASCII uploading (of blank lines) or
otherwise and I wouldn't know it.
 
I can't really fault mailers that remove trailing blanks; they are
trying to avoid consuming bandwidth with null information. I think
the answer is a change to PGP to remove trailing blanks anytime
-t is active. I have written to Branko to suggest this, but his
response was somewhat lukewarm.  Perhaps he would change his mind
if he received the same suggestion from several individual PGP users.

--
edgar@spectrx.saigon.com (Edgar W. Swank)
SPECTROX SYSTEMS +1.408.252.1005  Silicon Valley, Ca