Robert, yes, literacy is important, too. Your counter proposition also has
validity.
I point out, however, that by the time one is looking at
Please select what kind of key you want:
(1) DSA and Elgamal (default)
(2) DSA (sign only)
(5) RSA (sign only)
(h) help on the above choices
she/he has likely already proceeded far enough along to have achieved
some degree of literacy. Having reached that point, with regards
to understanding PGP/GPG technology, she/he may still be a novice.
Of course, had Michael W. Lucas been a bit clearer in his book,
the "(h) help on the above choices" might not have been of benefit to myself.
OTOH, it would nevertheless benefit many of those beginners who might not
be aware of MWL's book and who might not have access to anything else written
for novices. One problem is that many writers write for an audience
that has already achieved domain erudition. Fortunately, for the
rest of us, there are authors of "______ for Dummies", et cetera.
(where ______ represents some subject of interest to the reader).
So, Robert, I restate my proposition as
The easier it is for informed, literate beginners to understand
the need for PGP/GPG technology, and the easier it is for
them to become aware of the existence of PGP/GPG technology,
the faster the adoption of PGP/GPG technology
into broad general use by the public will likely occur.
Regards,
Gerry
P.S.: I finished high school in 1965 and went straight into working.
In 1967, I became a programmer. Long before "user friendliness"
was a broadly known and often abused concept, I was writing
software that truly qualified as "user friendly".
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