An appeal for volunteer programmers

This posting is .

One of my interests is cryptography (including steganography).

UR_KAG_TMHQ_MZ_UZFQDQEF_AD_IAGXP_XUWQ_FA_NQOAYQ_UZFQDQEFQP_FTUE_BAEF_YMK_NQ_RAD_KAG

When I retired in 1992 I began writing a series of books (for beginners) on the subject of codebreaking and some friends assisted me by writing some QBasic programs that are a part of the books.

QABIZ BMLIE MJAQB MIVLJ MOIVO MBBQV
ODWTC VBMMZ ABWEZ QBMAW UMKWL MJZMI
SQVOX ZWOZI UABPI BQXTI KMLWV BPMAQ
BMIAN ZMMLW EVTWI LAMVL

These free downloads were written by many different volunteers (both in age and experience), using different programming languages. What these downloads have in common is the general appearance of the GUI. You can see an example at http://secretcodebreaker.com/SCBSolverA.html

QDBCT_JKW_D_CPVA_P_JUIRAQ_KM_OQYLTKBQPLCDO_LQKBQPI_LQKEAOTS_TCPT_PQA_DJ_JAAG_KM_P_LQKBQPIIAQ_WKUHG_YKU_HDFA_TK_VKHUJTAAQ?

These projects range from a very simple table look-up program to a rather complex modification to a polyalphabetic cracker.

I cannot pay you but I will give you a set of my handbooks. As you can see from the list of downloads at http://secretcodebreaker.com/codes.html I do give credit to the programmer. But the primary payback is the learning experience.

CMYJU BPVAO JHATB CQMPN CITBC QKJQT CISYJ UKNJR PRFYP NADUQ TTBAK ANQJI CHFJJ ECISM JN

 

Theres serveral programmers here, unfortunatly in my situation Time is like gold dust, if you have a specific project in mind then feel free to post here.

PS: I got the first 2 then got bord of clicking the buttons lol

 

That's probably an indication that your level of interest is not high enough.

Wish you hadn't 'posted' those two ciphtexts you did crack.

 

I've asked a mod to remove them.

 

Thank you.

I don't recall ever using a forum that was as polite and cooperative as this one.

It's a pleasure to be a member.

 

I have four or five on my current list. But, since you asked -

This is one of the easy ones.

It is a 'word pattern' analysis program.

I have a number of word pattern text files, 29 to be exact. They contain lists of words in pattern sequence. Here is an example (the first six lines of file #5, which is for five letter words).

=========
5-11231
EERIE
5-11234
AARON
LLOYD
OOZED
=========
As you can see, the arguments are length of word (5) and pattern of letters. It's useful when doing simple monoalphabetic substitution cryptanalysis (and crossword puzzles).

I need a GUI that will accept the ciphertext word (TTHET), convert it into the word pattern series of numbers (11231), look that up in the appropriate file (#5) and display the results (EERIE).

Simple program (I think).

 

Simple enough yes. PM me the link to the word file and give me an hour. (assuming I don't have to do any buisness related work)

 

ok since you vanished I will just leave you with this, anyone else who want to finish it may find it useful. Heres a function that will convert the bit with letters into the bit with numbers.

Code:

[COLOR=#0000FF]Private[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]Function[/COLOR] ConvertPatternNumber([COLOR=#0000FF]ByVal[/COLOR] Pattern [COLOR=#0000FF]As[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]String[/COLOR]) [COLOR=#0000FF]As[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]String[/COLOR]
    [COLOR=#0000FF]Dim[/COLOR] RetVal          [COLOR=#0000FF]As[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]String[/COLOR]
    [COLOR=#0000FF]Dim[/COLOR] PartIndex       [COLOR=#0000FF]As[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]Integer[/COLOR]
    [COLOR=#0000FF]Dim[/COLOR] UsedIndex       [COLOR=#0000FF]As[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]Integer[/COLOR]
    [COLOR=#0000FF]Dim[/COLOR] Part            [COLOR=#0000FF]As[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]String[/COLOR]
    [COLOR=#0000FF]Dim[/COLOR] UsedLetters     [COLOR=#0000FF]As[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]String[/COLOR]
    [COLOR=#0000FF]Dim[/COLOR] Found           [COLOR=#0000FF]As[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]Boolean[/COLOR]
     
    Pattern = UCase(Pattern)
    
    [COLOR=#0000FF]For[/COLOR] PartIndex = 1 [COLOR=#0000FF]To[/COLOR] Len(Pattern)
        Part = Mid(Pattern, PartIndex, 1)
        
        [COLOR=#0000FF]If[/COLOR] UsedLetters <> [COLOR=#FF0000]""[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]Then[/COLOR]
            Found = [COLOR=#0000FF]False[/COLOR]
            [COLOR=#0000FF]For[/COLOR] UsedIndex = 1 [COLOR=#0000FF]To[/COLOR] Len(UsedLetters)
                [COLOR=#0000FF]If[/COLOR] Part = Mid(UsedLetters, UsedIndex, 1) [COLOR=#0000FF]Then[/COLOR]
                    RetVal = RetVal & UsedIndex
                    Found = [COLOR=#0000FF]True[/COLOR]
                    Exit [COLOR=#0000FF]For[/COLOR]
                [COLOR=#0000FF]End[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]If[/COLOR]
            [COLOR=#0000FF]Next[/COLOR]
            
            [COLOR=#0000FF]If[/COLOR] Found = [COLOR=#0000FF]False[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]Then[/COLOR]
                RetVal = RetVal & (Len(UsedLetters) + 1)
                UsedLetters = UsedLetters & Part
            [COLOR=#0000FF]End[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]If[/COLOR]
        [COLOR=#0000FF]Else[/COLOR]
            RetVal = [COLOR=#FF0000]"1"[/COLOR]
            UsedLetters = Part
        [COLOR=#0000FF]End[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]If[/COLOR]
    [COLOR=#0000FF]Next[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#0000FF]End[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000FF]Function[/COLOR]

 

Sorry, I had to go with my wife and walk the Westie. "She who must be obeyed"


I don't know exactly what you mean when you say, 'the link'

The 29 files are text (ASCII?) that I can open with an ordinary text editor.

The file 'names' are simply 1.wl, 2.wl, 3.wl, etc. Since they are text files I can rename them to anything you want (or not).

As for giving you an hour, I'll give you a week (or month if you want). The only problem I've found with not giving the programmer a 'deadline' is sometimes they never get 'a round tuit' particularly the fix it part after Beta test (I have four or five 'crippies' that Beta test this stuff).

Anyway, what I do have is a link to an example of a GUI that hopefully will give you an idea of what it should look like. One input space, two output spaces, one large enough to show a number of words. You can go to http://secretcodebreaker.com/pattern.jpg for a look see.

And thanks for your interest.

 

matt.chugg,

Since I can't read a program and determine what it is doing, I am not able to tell if the routine you wrote and posted allows for the possibility that a word may contain more than 9 different letters, which would require the use of alpha characters in configuring the pattern.

Here is an example -

19-12345678982A1B1C1DE
INCOMPREHENSIBILITY

Another thing I failed to mention is that after the program is written, I write the instructions. I like to have that instruction file (text file) imbedded in the executable, accessible via the Help Menu. That's not a requirement, just a 'like to have it' feature.

Rock on,

 

It can cope with any length word, it looks at the length and then just loops through it, then since it knows the length and your files are named based on the length it will easily be able to look in the right file.

I just wanted a look at one of the files so I could see the format, it it the same as what you just posted earlier.

Basically that code is the hard part, the rest is simple file lookup, Have you considered using a database instead of a text file. The db file may be a bit bigger than the combined text files but the lookup from the program would be WAY faster.

 

The issue is not the length of the word but the pattern possibilities (more than 9 different letters).

Here is a zip of all the files.

http://secretcodebreaker.com/patterns.zip

The issue is size, not speed. The smaller the data file (patterns.zip) the less bandwidth I have to pay for on the download.

Speed means nothing. It's manual input and Mark I eyeball scanning of the result.

I did not mention this, but this program (and all the download programs) are not 'online' programs. Another reason speed is of little consequence. In some instances, I've had to ask the programmer to slow the program, since all are essentially user driven.

Thanks for your interest in my projects.

 

matt.chugg -

Having not heard from you in this thread since my last post (10/12), I'm assuming you do not intend to do anything more with this program project.

I just want to be sure that such is the case as a 16 yr old (from the UK) just 'volunteered' to do some programming for me and I didn't want to have two programmers working the same problem.

So, before I ask him to complete that which you started, I thought I'd check.

Thanks

 

Sorry, I have been busy with lots of stuff. If you have another programmer then go ahead and let him do it. You are welcome to the code I posted above.