Re: Preparing a new draft.../ PGP versions 5 and later / ciphertext-format query.....

[Florian Weimer <Florian.Weimer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe Tag <joe.tag@xxxxxxxx> writes:

> I believe that PGP 5.0/5.0i is the MINIMUM BASIC version of the
> software that end-users should use.  That version is available for
> IBM PC-DOS/MS-DOS, and supports CAST/Diffie-Hellman, as well as
> IDEA/RSA algorithms and protocols.

PGP 5 has security-related problems and is not compatible with OpenPGP
either.

> BTW: Why was Radix-64 developed; and what are the problems of having
> ciphertext output as a hexadecimal file?

Hexadecimal streams encode 4 bits per character, while Radix-64
streams encode 6 bits per character, so a Radix-64 is somewhat shorter
than a hexadecimal stream.