+NHAnimator Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 New to solving cryptograms. I often use solvers to make the process go a little faster, but have recently run into several puzzles where each encrypted letter is represented by an alphanumeric string of variable length. For example, I might see the following... A1 JH CA1 X JH N UN2 22 CA1 ...which actually represents 9 letters (rather than 9 words). I started trying to use Word to do a simple find and replace (A1=A, JH=B, CA1=C, etc.) to simplify the code, but this is time-consuming and error-prone. Does anyone know of a crypto solver which can deal with this situation. Or does anyone know of a tool which can at least take such a string and, based on spaces, replace the strings with single letters (which I can then take further). Thanks, NHAnimator Quote Link to comment
+Joe_L Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 Is pencil and paper still considered a tool? Count the quantity of each character group. If it's English, then the frequency order will probably be E-T-A-O-I-N-S-R. (Google letter frequency.) You should have a good idea of the degrees longitude and latitude, so look for those words; and a "Y" will follow a "T", as in "thirty", "forty", "fifty". "North" and "west" may be there. The coder may have spelled out the word "point" - twice. And the coordinates will most likely be at the end of the message, so concentrate there. Good luck. Joe Quote Link to comment
+NHAnimator Posted October 21, 2016 Author Share Posted October 21, 2016 Is pencil and paper still considered a tool? Count the quantity of each character group. If it's English, then the frequency order will probably be E-T-A-O-I-N-S-R. (Google letter frequency.) You should have a good idea of the degrees longitude and latitude, so look for those words; and a "Y" will follow a "T", as in "thirty", "forty", "fifty". "North" and "west" may be there. The coder may have spelled out the word "point" - twice. And the coordinates will most likely be at the end of the message, so concentrate there. Good luck. Joe Thanks. I'm not having a problem solving the cryptos per se. But it's a lot easier to solve them when a 9-letter word is represented by something like ABDFRESADC rather than A1 JH CA1 X JH N UN2 22 CA1. Cyrpto helpers online are basically letter-for-letter. I'm looking for "groups of characters"-for-letter. I can take from there. Quote Link to comment
+barefootguru Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Thanks. I'm not having a problem solving the cryptos per se. But it's a lot easier to solve them when a 9-letter word is represented by something like ABDFRESADC rather than A1 JH CA1 X JH N UN2 22 CA1. Cyrpto helpers online are basically letter-for-letter. I'm looking for "groups of characters"-for-letter. I can take from there. I've done this, but so infrequently I do it semi-manually: add a space to the start and end of the string. Then do (up to) 26 find & replaces in your favourite text editor (mine's BBEdit) of (space)(code)(space) with (space)(letter)(space). e.g. replace all ' JH ' with ' B '. Quote Link to comment
+NHAnimator Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 I've done this, but so infrequently I do it semi-manually: add a space to the start and end of the string. Then do (up to) 26 find & replaces in your favourite text editor (mine's BBEdit) of (space)(code)(space) with (space)(letter)(space). e.g. replace all ' JH ' with ' B '. Thanks, barefootguru. That's exactly what I do now. Quote Link to comment
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