NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

ctool

The ctool program is designed to be a general interface for manipulating all of the cipher types available to the cipher package. Currently only the following ciphers can be used with ctool:

• aristocrat (patristocrat)
• baconian
• beaufort
• cadenus
• columnar (complete and incomplete)
• grille
• gronsfeld
• homophonic
• morbit
• myszcowski
• pollux
• porta
• swagman
• variant
• vigenere

Features

• Load a new cipher from the contents of a file
• Save the current workspace
• Load a previously saved workspace
• View the key for the current cipher
• Perform substitutions, locate tips, and change periods for ciphers. The actual operations that can be performed depend on the current cipher type.

Misfeatures

• Many cipher types can't be used with this tool, but they are still listed when you load a new cipher.
• Pollux plaintext doesn't quite line up with the morse code text
• The user input areas are very lame. Their only redeeming value is that they are functional. There are often buttons on the display that do nothing but generate error messages.
• No drag and drop support on the ciphertext itself. One should be able to, for example, drag and drop columns in a columnar cipher to change the key.
• You can't change a cipher's type after it's been loaded.
• Loading aristocrat ciphers sometimes cause the entire program to crash.
• Bugs abound. See the TODO file for details.