Compression Order

AS3?...We are beginning to implement the Compression Draft
specification:

http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-ediint-compre
ssion-00.txt

and an implementation decision has arisen.  When Compression
is applied in concert with Signatures, which should be
applied first?

    Compress + Sign    or
    Sign + Compress

        and

    Compress + Sign + Encrypt   or
    Sign + Compress + Encrypt

Different companies have presented valid business cases for
each alternative.

The advocates for Signing first desire the signature to be
over readable text (you know what you are signing -- which
is why we never Sign after Encrypting).

The advocates for Compressing first desire performance
improvements.  In this case, Compression is compared as just
another encoding scheme so it is really still plain text.

Discussions thus far have resulted in a consensus that the
implementors should be able to apply these functions in
either order when sending.  When receiving, the
implementations should be able to process either case.

We are looking for further discussions. . .

Regards,

David Fischer
Drummond Group.