From: "Dr. Manhattan" <docm@watchmen.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 94 11:32:53 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: re: HTML, OLE
Message-ID: <199411231927.LAA25073@holonet.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> Has anyone considered OLE compliant PGP encrypter/decrypter objects
> that would act on the contents of the document? 

I've thought about it, and am just starting to climb the OLE learning
curve (I am reasonably familiar with Windows programming with MFC).

This of course would assume a native windows PGP, a feat that would
require substantial rewriting of PGP itself.  This is something I will
not undertake since PGP itself is apparently going to heavily
changed/updated in the future (PEM compliance, dbm files for keyrings,
an API, etc.) and I don't want to put effort in an evolutionary dead
end.

But after that, making PGP an OLE client wouldn't be too much extra
work.  Then you could link/embed OLE items into a PGP document (such
as Word, Excel, Write, Paint, Sound Recorder, any other OLE server
items).  Actually, embedding would be necessary since a mere link
wouldn't survive encryption and decryption on a possibly different
machine (i.e. the link would point to meaningless memory).

The fancier approach would be to make PGP an OLE server as well, such
that you could link/embed a PGP document (encrypted text, signed text,
etc.) into other apps.  Again, embedding would be necessary.

If PGP were an OLE client, you ould embed graphs, pictures, sound,
spreadsheets, etc. into a document, and encrypt the document.

If PGP were an OLE server, you would embed encrypted pictures,
encrypted spreadsheets, encrypted cound, etc. into a document and mail
the document.  Of course, it would seem easier to just embed OLE items
and encrypt the document once.

I don't know what the prefered behavior is.  I lean towards PGP as an
OLE client.