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Re: 200

> 
> Of course, I have to input the X.509v3 ASN.1 text to the c code generator.

Aha! So you have the ASN.1 for X.509v3? Can I have a copy, please?

> It maps the data structures and the object relationships into a c and h
> files for packaging. I must supply signature verification and signing c code,
> and I'm done. Sure, the total entity is far greater than 200 lines, but I
> need only personally write very little code.
> 
> For signature verification (or signing for that matter), I must do a db
> lookup and fetch a key, so there's some file access code that must be
> provided. An it's true that I need to use a crypto library to compute
> signatures too. But that's a vendor package also (I do not need to personally
> write this code either.)
> 
> Encoding or decoding an arbitrary ASN.1 object (if there are no user defined
> constraints that I must code in c/c++), requires only one line of c code to
> make the call, plus a little error handling if the data's bad, plus the
> declarations, header includes, etc.
> 
> Of course, I must also distribute a royalty free runtime library that the
> decoder/encoder uses (but I don't code it either). The product that I use
> allows me to cross-compile to many different platforms (DOS, UNIX, Windows,
> Win95, OS/2, etc.) from a common ASN definition.

Well, that's very nice for you. The question is, how much does it cost, in
both money and time? How long did you spend evaluating ASN.1 compilers? How
much did it cost to get evaluation versions? Was it cheaper because you work
for IBM? Don't forget that for most implementors this will be their _only_ use
of ASN.1, so all these costs can be directly attributed to the cost of
implementing X.509. Peanuts to IBM, of course, and astronomical to the one-man
band, no doubt.

> 
> Regards, Phil
> 
> 

-- 
Ben Laurie                  Phone: +44 (181) 994 6435
Freelance Consultant and    Fax:   +44 (181) 994 6472
Technical Director          Email: ben@algroup.co.uk
A.L. Digital Ltd,           URL: http://www.algroup.co.uk
London, England.
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