RE: is manual keying mandatory

[[e-mail] (Bede McCall)]

   Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 15:07:28 -0500
   From: Michael Richardson <[e-mail]>

   [ . . . ]

     Like I said: you can burry your manual keying interface behind
   a tty based command line interface that speaks only EBCDIC if you
   want, and is available only on Thursdays with full moons.  So long as
   someone who arrives at a certification lab has a EBCDIC terminal with
   them, it won't matter.

     Just because it is in the spec doesn't mean you have to have it in
   your GUI.

   [ . . . ]

Clearly, this kind of approach is disingenuous at best and doesn't
make for either credible compliance with the spec or a sound
implementation since you end up with embedded "living dead" code.
One could end up having nightmares about hordes of undocumented
features skulking in the shadows of every IPSec implementation's
Anxiety Closet.

A much better idea:  explain what it's for in plain, honest language
and figuratively advise your customers to use the feature only on
Thursdays with full moons, and then only if their blood alcohol
content is under .03 (...legal even in Sweden, I think).

-- 
  Bede McCall   <[e-mail]>
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