Hi Marc and Mark and other OCF lovers! I'm not that pessimistic. I do think it is possible to maintain the OCF without the vendors. Reasons:
1. Almost all readers use PC-SC which means that we do fine with only this terminal service. PC-SC now works fine on UNIX too. 2. It is not that difficult to write a card service. With the provided reference implementations it just a couple of weeks. 3. There are at least one card (hopefully more) that close follows the ISO7816-x standards (setcos 4.3 from setec). With ISO7816-8 it is now possible to do standardized operation with the private key of the card. I have two services that I could "donate" to a new "OCF open source": 1. A "generic" card service that is only using strict ISO commands when communicating with the card. Unfortunately I have only been able to test the setcos4.3 card. 2. An update of the PC-SC terminal service that works fine on Linux. We (TAJT) has developed a tool that will certify that a card fulfills the Swedish standard for identity cards. This tool will be used by public authorities in Sweden before accepting a new electronic identity card. The tool is using the previous mentioned "generic" card service. To find more information about the tool please search the page www.swedac.se for "SWEDAC-SAT" (overview/Activities/SWEDAC-SAT). regards Lars Marc Palmer wrote: > > ------ Original Message ------ > > On 02/10/01, 14:54:55, Mark Dobrinic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote > regarding Re: [OCF] Motion to immediately close and dissolve the OpenCard: > > > >>Hello, >> > >>I am follow this list occasionally, and since OCF is being used and has >> > potential in a Java-based world, is anybody interested in continuing this > project in some other way? > >>Or based on what is known about it, reimplement OCF to make it >> > better/better documented? > >>Like you suggest, develop OpenCard Foundation into a REAL Open SDK? >> > >>If anyone is interested, please let me know ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) >> > > Yes of course many of us would be in theory. > > However, I don't think it is a good plan. > > Why? Well to do this kind of thing properly you must have the help of the > card/reader vendors. It's very hard work without this, and you can't make > it appeal to developers unless you support many readers and card types. > If you write a new system you will have a hard time getting SLB, IBM, > Gemplus, Bull etc. to provide "CardService" implementations for your > framework. They will not be interested unless it is a "standard" > framework (like OCF is in a way). > > Now, if the OpenCard Consortium is thinking of giving up because it can't > get vendors to support it enough, then what chance do any of us have? > > We have experienced similar problems with our DCSF product that extends > OCF with card identification and card service implementations > (http://www.wangjammers.org/smartcards/). > > I really think the card vendor executives need to get their brains into > gear and realise that this is a major enabler for smartcard applications > and they could be limiting themselves to the VISA and AMEX of this world > as far as customer bases go. > > Just because there aren't many java applications that use SmartCards yet, > doesn't mean there won't be. The potential is huge and Java is only now > maturing enough to make it possible to deploy user-friendly applications > that use smartcards. > > ...and our DCSF project hopes to make this a reality too. A public beta > release is imminent now. > > Kind regards, > Marc Palmer > http://www.wangjammers.org > > > > > --- > >>Visit the OpenCard web site at http://www.opencard.org/ for more >>information on OpenCard---binaries, source code, documents. >>This list is being archived at http://www.opencard.org/archive/opencard/ >> > > ! To unsubscribe from the [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list send an email > ! to > ! [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ! containing the word > ! unsubscribe > ! in the body. > > --- > Visit the OpenCard web site at http://www.opencard.org/ for more > information on OpenCard---binaries, source code, documents. > This list is being archived at http://www.opencard.org/archive/opencard/ ! To unsubscribe from the [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list send an email ! to ! [EMAIL PROTECTED] ! containing the word ! unsubscribe ! in the body.