Mailing List Archive

RFC 4880: Is there a good reason to define a specific format for storing cryptographic data ?
Hello,


I've just finished the implementation of RFC 4880 in Python (at least part
of it).


And I am asking the question :


*why is PGP not using a standard format to encode data ?*


I mean : we could very well use XML, JSON or YAML to represent a PGP
document.


Is there a good reason to define a specific format for storing
cryptographic data ?


Regards,


Denis
Re: RFC 4880: Is there a good reason to define a specific format for storing cryptographic data ? [ In reply to ]
Because RFC1991, which RFC2440 built on, which in turn ultimately became RFC4880, far predates XML, YAML, or JSON. By now the RFC way of storing data has a huge amount of bureaucratic inertia.
On Dec 27, 2019 12:14 PM, Denis BEURIVE <denis.beurive@gmail.com> wrote:


Hello,




I&#39;ve just finished the implementation of RFC 4880 in Python (at least part of it).




And I am asking the question :




why is PGP not using a standard format to encode data ?




I mean : we could very well use XML, JSON or YAML to represent a PGP document.




Is there a good reason to define a specific format for storing cryptographic data ?




Regards,




Denis