Re: PGP and offline-readers

[Timothy Newsham <newsham@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu>]

  I think a good idea for offline readers would be to build ontop of
currently implemented protocols.  One protocol worth mentioning is
IMAP2.  Right now IMAP2 usually runs over TCP but there is no reason
why it couldn't run over a serial channel instead (SIMAP :)
It allows for remote access to mailboxes from a mail server, and also
remote access to builitin-board messages (ie. USENET).  There are
several packages in development or already in use that use IMAP.
PINE for unix's and soon to be available for DOS machines supports
IMAP access.  PINE also supports MIME and could be extended nicely
to handle automatic PGP encryption/decryption of mail (or en/de-
cryption with other crypto-systems).  Macintosh already has a mailer
supporting IMAP, the name eludes me at the moment.   The mailers
in existence are written for TCP and would have to be modified for
use over the serial line, perhaps with a pseudo-packet driver in
the dos case.  I think this type of solution would be much cheaper
and much more feature filled than starting from scratch.

                              Tim N.