Re: [Tails-dev] Symmetric OpenPGP encryption and removing Fi…

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Autore: intrigeri
Data:  
To: The Tails public development discussion list
Oggetto: Re: [Tails-dev] Symmetric OpenPGP encryption and removing FireGPG - middle term, UI
Hi,

intrigeri wrote (06 Nov 2011 12:15:06 GMT) :
> I'm fairly happy with the applet itself, but the resulting global
> desktop UI seems overly complicated to me:
>   - a launcher icon (Seahorse applet) offers to *decrypt* and/or
>     *verify* the clipboard content
>   - another applet in the notification bar (our new one) offers to
>     symmetrically *encrypt* the clipboard content


> So I wonder if we should not take over the Seahorse applet text
> decryption and verification functionality, and consolidate all the
> symmetric encryption toolkit into one single applet. I could take
> a few more hours to feature-bloat my applet like so, and would be
> happy to drop the whole thing into the trashcan once Seahorse has
> improved. What do you think?


Given the current state of seahorse-plugins...
I did it, eventually.

At commit 62f70a2, the bugfix/replace_firegpg branch does not run the
Seahorse applet anymore. It does not install FireGPG either.

The home-grown applet now features:

  - symmetrically *encrypt* clipboard content
  - *decrypt* clipboard content (regardless of the kind of OpenPGP
    encryption)
  - status icon and action menu change depending on the content of the
    clipboard(s), the same way as the Seahorse applet does


Missing features wrt. the Seahorse + FireGPG combo:

- asymmetric (i.e. public key) encryption
- signature verification
- import key (covered by other parts of the Seahorse UI, though)

I tend to think the current state of things is good enough to be
shipped in Tails. I hope the vast majority of asymmetric OpenPGP users
could/should use a MUA rather than FireGPG / Seahorse applet.
I'd rather keep this home-grown applet simple and stupid, and not dive
into the mess that is "presenting possible encryption keys and
deciding which one should be the preferred one for a given recipient".

On the other hand, I'm a bit more doubtful about verifying the
clipboard content. If there's enough push in favor of it, I'll add it.

What do you think?

Cheers,
--
intrigeri <intrigeri@???>
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