New US Rep to ISO C

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <1989Apr26.023157.18763 at utzoo.uucp> henry at utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>As opposed to the prohibition on exporting crypt(1), which is childish
>invented-here syndrome...   :-) :-) :-)

As I recall, crypt(1 not 3) -- which is of no national security significance
since it discloses no secrets and any competent cryptographic agency can
readily break it (indeed there is a "crypt breaker's workbench" in the net
archives!) -- was removed from recent "international" releases of UNIX by
AT&T on their own initiative, to avoid possible hassles, not at the request
of any government agency (Commerce Dept. would most likely be the one, and
naturally they don't have in-house cryptographic expertise but rely on
guidance from other agencies).

(How's that for a sentence?)

In other words, nearly everybody agrees that it was silly.
(Even more so since the code was distributed internationally previously!)
But what do you expect when bureaucrats and lawyers are involved?