From: tim@dierks.org (Tim Dierks)
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 19:08:17 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: ASN.1 Tools/Compilers
Message-ID: <v02140b01ad781d763403@[205.149.165.24]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 10:29 AM 3/21/96, Frederick Zarndt wrote:
>Does anyone know of reliable ASN.1 tools/compilers suitable for use on a
>wide range
>platforms?
>
>I already know about the following tools/compilers, but I would appreciate
>comments
>anyone cares to make:
>
>    ISODE (who to contact for the DE?)
>    Snacc
>
>Thanks.
>
>Frederick Zarndt
>Senior Software Engineer
>Novell, Inc
>122 East 1700 South
>Provo UT 84606
>USA
>
>Tel  801 429-3348
>Fax. 801 429-3500

I've recently been looking into this as well. I haven't looked at ISODE
yet. Snacc looks reasonable, but can't handle big integers (> 2^32), which
may make it hard to use for certificates, due to embedded RSA keys; I
haven't yet checked to see what could be done about this. It's free; the
compiler is under the GNU license, but the runtime is redistributable
without fee or onerous restriction.

I also spoke to a company in NJ, Open Systems Solutions (609.987.9073), but
their licensing terms were too expensive for my purposes. Their product
runs on a lot of platforms and sounds very complete, but requires a
licensed run-time environment. They currently support C and Pascal; C++ is
coming. Their development environment starts at $11,500.

I'm also searching for an ASN.1 product. We can afford to pay for a
compiler, but we need unrestrained distribution of the runtime in source
form. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

You may wish to examine the ASN.1 homepage @:
         http://www.inria.fr/rodeo/personnel/hoschka/asn1.html

Best,
 - Tim

Tim Dierks - Software Haruspex - tim@dierks.org
Hastening the heat-death of the universe since 1968.