Re: Bug 23159 - Inconsistent "length" property when generating keys (bits vs bytes)

Yes, well, since HMAC is the odd one out, it seemed changing that might be
simpler from the point of view of all the existing implementations, test
suites etc. Also, it's more common to refer to the number of bits in a key
(e.g AES-128) than bytes. In those cases you have to check for specific
values 128, 192, 256, not just for byte alignment.

So, I still prefer bits.

...Mark



Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 3, 2014, at 3:59 PM, Richard Barnes <rlb@ipv.sx> wrote:

Agree we should be uniform.  Typed arrays are all byte oriented, so it
seems like aligning on BYTES (literally) would result in less ambiguity.
Otherwise you have to say how you pack left over bits.



On Monday, March 3, 2014, Mark Watson <watsonm@netflix.com> wrote:

> https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=23159
>
> The length property of an algorithm is everywhere specified as the length
> in BITS, except HMAC which defines it as the length in BYTES.
>
> The proposal is to align on BITS.
>
> Any objections ?
>
> ...Mark
>