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Re: Mindshare and Java
On Wed, 24 Apr 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:
> So, I was faced with a heart-rending choice: get an Intel box, put Linux on
> it, and try to "get in the mainstream" by writing something in Perl, or
> TCL, etc. (Though I note that the early success with writing remailers in
> Perl has not been followed by any other stunning applications of a
> similarly revolutionary nature...and I don't know of anybody doing anything
> Cypherpunkly-interesting in TCL, for example.)
Actually, I'm just starting such a project in TCL...
The first phase is as a shell for Matt Blaze's Crypto File System, so it
can be run, and changes made, without opening up a shell or dealing with
command-line options.
The next phase will be to write (what I beleive to be) the first graphical
PGP shell for X.
While this isn't a seriously cypherpunks-relevant app, as most people
running X are capable of dealing with the command line (I am, too, but I
don't want to open up a shell every time I load up my encrypted
partition), but I'm using it as a jumping-off point.
I don't think TCL is suited to heavy-duty crypto applications, except as
an interface. Mostly because it is interpreted, though I'm not sure how
"everything is a string" would affect bignums. (And I wouldn't want to
write a TCL bignum library...)
It might be possible to write a remailer front-end in TCL, and that might
be a near-future project, if the frontend project proves successful.
(Which it has, in a sense, because the first phase (though it isn't where
I'd want to distribute it far and wide) is done to the point where I can
load my CFS partition and disconnect it without opening a shell...
(early Alpha code is available upon request, and suggestions/help/co-writing
is most certainly welcome...)
Jon Lasser
----------
Jon Lasser (410)494-3072 - Obscenity is a crutch for
[email protected] inarticulate motherfuckers.
http://www.goucher.edu/~jlasser/
Finger for PGP key (1024/EC001E4D) - Fuck the CDA.