From: Timothy Newsham <newsham@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 02:42:30 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Public-Key Crypto Toolkit
Message-ID: <9309210942.AA18954@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> THUS SPAKE Mike Ingle <MIKEINGLE@delphi.com>:
> # Any ideas as
> # to what language/method would be best for implementing a PK toolbox?  This
> # could really get the "Cypherpunks write code" ideal moving. Anyone want to
> # help?
> 
> Yeah, let's write some code!
> 
> "TCL" is my language of choice for this -- it was designed specifically
> for wrapping other libraries and embedding inside other tools. 

good choice,  I think a crypto library written for TCL or TCL/TK would
be nice.

> I've been wanting to build the crypto-toolkit, too, and have started with RSAREF wrappers.
> 
> There's a nice TCP module for TCL that lets you implement clients and
> servers.  There's also the "TK" X-windows toolkit, for seamless graphical 
> interfaces to TCL stuff.
> 
> Ftp to sprite.berkeley.edu and ftp down TCL or TK (which will include TCL).
> (A lot of people may suggest perl, but perl was designed with a different
> set of goals in mind.)

I havent had alot of luck getting different add ons compiled for tcl/tk,
perhaps because I use one of the newer versions of tcl,  the tcp module
was one of them.


> 					strick
> 					strick@versant.com

What we need most of all is an interface.  This is basically what
you are proposing.  Since tcl add-ons are usually written in C
I think it would be best off to start with a C library calling interface.
Once this is made, you could build a tcl shell (or a wish shell) on
top of it.  I expressed what I would like to see in a C library
interface a few days ago.  It would be based on PGP routines and
the PGP "shell" would be re-implemented over it.  I have gotten
no feedback on the idea at all.  Are there any members of the PGP
team on this list?  If not how could I get in touch with them?
This is an idea I really would like to see done, and which would
pave the way to coding alot of applications and interfaces to
PGP.  I would gladly work on such a project myself, but I am
afraid if I do my code will be both un-exportable and non standard
and will hence go unused.

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