Re: Moving files from lisp/gnus/ to lisp/net/?

[Daiki Ueno]

2007/11/6, Richard Stallman <address@hidden>:

>     The existing `read-passwd' API is not suitable for password.el, because
>     each password needs to be associated with an application-dependent
>     'key'.  There is no parameter for that in `read-passwd'.  Do you think
>     it is worth adding one?
>
> I see no harm in adding one.  Adding it at the end would avoid
> incompatibility.
>
>     Alternatively, and what I consider the best idea (but it was some time
>     since this was discussed and I may very well have forgotten some
>     important point): let's make `read-passwd' a more lower-level primitive,
>     used by `password-read'.
>
> All else being equal, I'd rather avoid adding another level of function
> calling.  It increases the total complexity, and I don't see any benefit.
> What is the benefit here?

Even though read-passwd is not perfectly secure, it is far better than
password caching in elisp.  If read-passwd does password caching by
itself and the docstring says so, thoughtless programmers will tend to
use that feature in every case.  That will cause spreading insecure
code.

So I like the latter idea, or rather to let password-read have longer
name like password-read-and-cache.

Regards,
-- 
Daiki Ueno