Re: draft-ietf-op-formats-01.txt

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On Sat, 14 Mar 1998, Lindsay Mathieson wrote:

> >String-to-Keys
> > So I reserved the old tag (0x03) as obsolete, and modified the
> >definition to have a new tag and use a 32-bit integer.
> 
> I feel I must object to this. All it does is create a new (unneccessary)
> format. Anyone who wants to maintain compatibility with PGP (which will be
> most) will still have to support the 8 bit floating point format. The
> change just complicates things, not simplifies.
> 
> And when all's said and done, what is so complicated about it ? sure its a
> finicky irritating design choice but once implemented you can forget about
> it. I can post source code if anyone finds it that difficult.

I agree.  Currently the floating point conversion is four lines.  I don't
know how good my compiler is, but it should compile down to fewer
instructions than the error checking to not support type 3 salt.

    i = *(*bp)++; /* get the number of iterations byte */
    j = i >> 4;
    i = (i & 15) + 16;
    i <<= j + 6;