From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 22:15:55 PST
To: markh@wimsey.bc.ca (Mark C. Henderson)
Subject: Re: crypto software/papers/docs CD -- is there any interest?
In-Reply-To: <m0pmE0D-000086C@vanbc.wimsey.com>
Message-ID: <199403310616.WAA09826@mail.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I just wanted to add another point about what Mark Henderson proposed:

> I'm considering the possibility of producing a CD (for distribution 
> in North America only) of crypto source code, information/papers and 
> binaries for common platforms.

I guess I concentrated on the "information/papers" part of your
proposal, as that's the only stuff that could really begin to need a
CD-ROM. (I think Bruce Schneier's source code diskettes fill less than
3 MB, and contain documented, tested code.)

Can "Mosaic/WWW"-compliant CDs be made? (I'm showing my ignorance of
Mosaic and WWW here, as I have not yet made the jump into either.) A
documentation system that allows code to be browsed, run, etc., sort
of a hypertect version of Schneier, could be quite useful.

(I use Mathematica, from Wolfram, and the popular thing is for books
to be written as Mathematica Notebooks, complete with executable code
in the Notebooks. The code version is either included in a diskette
with the book or is ftp-able from a site. Schneier decided to do
neither of these, for reasons having to do with his publisher fearing
export of the book would not be allowed if a diskette was included.
The reason an ftp site was not included is less clear. Maybe it had to
do with making money from the sale of the diskettes.)

--Tim May






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Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
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