[cynwoody]

I absolutely agree that there should be a "show typing" override. Ideally, it should be built into the entry widget as a clickable or touchable area. There should also be a key chord to toggle masking. There are lots of times when there is absolutely no danger of shoulder surfing, and showing the typing would have the advantages the author describes.

I note that PGP Desktop has a checkbox to disable masking. I always tick it. It helps me to get the pass phrase right and to burn it into memory.

But the default should be mask!! (OK, maybe the default should be configurable. But the default default should still be to mask.) In public situations, it would be too much to have to remember to turn on masking.