Re: Proposal: PGPmail Plugin for Netscape/Mosaic

[Raph Levien <raph@cs.berkeley.edu>]

Mark M. wrote:
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> 
> On Sat, 15 Jun 1996, Hal wrote:
> 
> > There was a little discussion about this on the coderpunks list, but I
> > didn't get the impression that anyone was ready to run out and do it.
> > I'm not sure whether plugins could also be used for receiving mail in
> > addition to sending, but if so it does seem like a good way to add the
> > functionality.
> 
> Netscape does have support for MIME.  So if PGP/MIME ever becomes more widely
> used, the Netscape mail program would decrypt and verify emails automatically.

I certainly don't want to stand in the way of such a plugin - it
certainly sounds like an interesting idea. However, the problem that
Netscape does not export mail through the plugin API sounds quite
difficult - it seems likely that, barring changes to the plugin API, an
entirely new and parallel mailer would need to be developed.

In the meantime, it is possible to integrate Unix Netscape with PGP
today, using premail. This includes fully seamless and transparent
support for PGP/MIME. In addition, you get support for the anonymous
remailers thrown in for free.

The main problem with the current release (0.43) is the lack of adequate
documentation. The near-mythical "next release" should fix that, when I
finally get it done.

Raph