Re: [NonGNU ELPA] New package: dw.el

[D <d.williams@posteo.net>]

> User is supposed to have the list, that does not seem practical. It
> means package is not self contained and user has to download something
> from somewhere.

You need a diceware world list for the diceware method, yes.  That's
why I added the appropriate links to the package description.

> Why don't you generate those numbers on the fly by taking random lines
> from a supplied word list?

That is of course possible, in principle.  On the other hand it's
generally not a good idea to use a dictionary list for this.  The
reasons for that are twofold: one only the first 6^5 words are
used. Using more would require using more than 5 dice per word.  In a
dictionary file like words, this would essentially guarantee that all
words start with [Aa].  On top of that, dictionary files contain
incredibly many variations of the same word with minor spelling and
casing differences, which of course also negatively affects entropy.
Hence it's good to stick to word lists deliberately generated for
diceware passphrase generation.

I could mitigate this problem by providing a word list the default
value.  This would not even require an extra file as the word list is
internalized as an association list.  That way people who want to try
out diceware for the first time don't have to bother with external
resources and people who just want to try it out get a plug & play
experience.