Improving the command line UI of gpg

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Jul 25, 2018 at 2:03 PM Dirk Gottschalk via Gnupg-devel <
gnupg-devel at gnupg.org> wrote:

>
> I see no reason for a wrapper in the GnuPG release. That's something
> what's up to the users usecase for gpg. most commands on the CLI which
> are used on a regular basis are as easy to use as possible, I think.
>

I agree.


>
> Gpg is used in so many ways by it's users, I wouldn't wonder if even
> Werner didn't think about some of them, before he heard of them.
>
> Distributing wrapper scripts with gnupg is not a goof idea, they would
> have to be provided for any platform. That means as shell scipts for
> Linux/Unix, as batch file for windows and so an. Python would not be an
> option because it would generate a dependency on python, what, for
> example, means an additional installation for python on windows.
>

I don't agree that bash scripts for Linux should be converted to batch
files for windows. There are ways though to run bash scripts on windows.

For long command line commands I created aliases, where this is enough,
> or I wrote my own scripts, where it is neccessary.
>

In my opinion this confirms the need for making the CLI of GnuPG a bit
more user-friendly (or more comfortable, as some people say), so that
people don't have to write their own scripts all the time.

There are even many GUI-Frontends for gpg out there, seahorse and GPA
> for example, and much more.
>
> Blowing up GnuPG itself, or the installation routine to install more
> dependencies, is nut a good idea, in my opinion.
>

My idea was not to blow up GnuPG (or its installation), but to have
more support about this project (or mini-project, or feature, whatever it
is).
If there is no general consensus that implementing this wrapper would
be a good thing, and it can potentially make things a bit easier for the
users,
and if there is no support from the core developers (at least moral
support),
there is no point in spending time to implement it.

I have been foolish enough in the past to spend time implementing
ideas that seemed good and useful to me, and the result has been
that nobody has supported them, nobody has helped to implement them,
instead people have called them "single-man projects", so not worth
of being taken seriously or being trusted. I don't want it to happen again.
I don't even see any need for implementing a "personal" wrapper script,
if I have to be its only user. It can only be useful if it is meant to be
used
by lots of users.

Regards,
Dashamir
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