More on fP 6.0 features

[Brian K. White]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fairlight" <fairlite at fairlite.com>
To: "filePro mailing list" <filepro-list at seaslug.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 7:59 PM
Subject: Re: More on fP 6.0 features


> You'll never BELIEVE what Brian K. White said here...:
>> Fairlight wrote:
>> > BASE64( TO|FROM , INFIELD, OUTFIELD)
>> >
>> > m->
>>
>>
>> rather:
>>
>> crypt(ecoding,key,direction,source,target)
>>
>> encoding is an ever growing list, initially base64 and crypt at least, 
>> mybe
>> rot13(w/ rot5 numbers) just for giggles
>
> I think you missed my point.  I wasn't talking about MD5 passwords, I was
> talking about inline MIME encoding for XML, email, etc.  :)

I knew exactly what you meant. My point, which I beleive you got so this is 
not strictly necessary, was just that it's probably going to be an annoying 
source of namespace clutter to have a base64 function when there are lots of 
ways to encode data and it'd be a mess to try and make functions for all of 
them, but a single "encode" function that takes as one of it's options the 
type of encoding makes a lot of sense, and base64 can simply be one of the 
things it knows how to do, and the list can grow over time as new things are 
invented or become popular.


> However, you have a valid point yourself, and I like the idea.  I think 
> the
> initial list should be DES, MD5, Blowfish, and possibly Extended DES, 
> since
> that's what FBSD allows in its password system.  And, ROT-13 aside, none 
> of
> those need a direction, as the others are one-way.  Perhaps as an optional
> last argument, to be gracefully ignored if not relevant.
>
> Actually, I'd add SHA1 to this list as well, as that's a popular hashing
> algorithm nowadays, sometimes rivalling MD5, depending on the circles in
> which you travel.

I didn't want to scare developers away with a big project, so I stressed the 
acceptability of a skeleton function that has a few easy encodings at first 
and more encodings can be added to it one or more at a time at their 
leisure. :)

Brian K. White  --  brian at aljex.com  --  http://www.aljex.com/bkw/
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