CDR: Re: A cool idea that didn't hold up under cryptanalysis.

[Jim Choate]

On Thu, 21 Sep 2000, Harmon Seaver wrote:

> Jim Choate wrote:
> 
> >
> > I'd also like to offer that Poe's Crypto Challenge might be a good way to
> > demonstrate the various attacks.
> >
> 
>              God, don't say that, you'll get that Emily Dickinson wacko
> going again.

Oh yeah. I guess I didn't think of that...;)

But on this topic, I just got back from one of the used bookstores with a
copy of,

Secrets of Making and Breaking Codes
Hamilton Nickels
ISBN 0-8065-1563-5
$7 US ($2 used)

TOC:

1.	General Information
2.	Concealment
3.	Transposition Systems
4.	Basic Substitution Systems
5.	Polyalphabetic Cipher Systems
6.	Code Machines
7.	Codemaster System
8.	Field Message Systems
A.	Common Words and Letters

Only 133 pages so it obviously isn't a deep tomb. However it does have
some BASIC programs that look like a good place to at least start.

If there is any interest I could put up some old tables [1] of:

- Letter/word frequency: English, French, German, Italian, & Spanish

- Notes on Japanese

[1] Cryptography: the science of secret writing
    Laurence Dwight Smith
    ISBN 0-486-20247-x (Dover)
    $5 US

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