Re: gnus/starttls.el and net/tls.el

[Richard Stallman]

    tls.el starts talking TLS to the server directly.  starttls.el, however,
    does not begin talking TLS until the application calls
    starttls-negotiate.  In other words, starttls.el allows an unencrypted
    phase before the encrypted phase starts.

Would it be hard to extend tls.el to provide a way to do this?

    tls.el can use openssl and gnutls.  starttls.el can use gnutls and a
    tool called 'starttls'.

What is the point of `starttls'?  For what purpose is it useful
to use that, rather than GNUtls?