FAQ maintenance
Doug Barton
dougb at dougbarton.email
Fri Feb 26 19:41:41 CET 2016
On 02/26/2016 07:29 AM, Robert J. Hansen wrote:
>> Why is it more resource intensive?
>
> It's far more intensive of a much more limited resource: user happiness.
> Normal users tend to find hexadecimal frustrating:
>
> "It's a *number*? But it uses A through F."
This is something that only experience can fix.
> "I don't understand. Why do I need the long ID?"
This is something the FAQ should explain :)
> "Wait, now I need to use the *entire* fingerprint?"
Ditto.
> "You can't be serious: I need to give a 40-character serial number
> whenever I need to identify a key?"
I'm not sure users care much how many characters they are copying and
pasting.
> "What do you *mean*, future keys will be expanding to 64 characters?!"
>
>
> ... In all this discussion about what's mathematically optimal, I'm
> dejected to see how little we're talking about human factors.
... you might note that in my recent response I did mention a very
important human factor. Consistent advice (always use the complete
fingerprint to identify a key) is MUCH easier for users to remember than
trying to teach them when they need it, and when they don't.
Doug
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