symmetric email encryption

[Robert J. Hansen]

> I guess the typical case would be that either the sender or the 
> recipient wants the communication encrypted (probably uses real crypto 
> himself) and would use symmetric encryption as the fastest and easiest 
> way to enable the other one to do that (or the only way the other party 
> accepts at that moment).

When technically savvy people make guesses about the "typical use case,"
we are usually wrong on levels we don't even imagine.  This is why real
usability studies with real users are essential.

At any rate, no one is telling you that you can't do this.  All you've
heard is that you've not convinced other people to implement it for you.
 The GnuPG and Enigmail sources are both freely available: start
hacking.  If you're right and people start using this in droves, I'll
cheerfully be the first one to admit I was wrong.

With this, I'm out of this thread.  :)