WSPOOKA.ZIP

WSPOOK -- 32-bit Windows Cryptoquote Solver 12 Jan 2016 -- K. L. Dunn Ciphergram Solver for Windows v1.1 Copyright (C) 1997-2002 K. L. Dunn This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Author: K. L. Dunn email: k.l.dunn@ieee.org Ciphergram Solution Assistant -- A Cryptoquote Solver A ciphergram (cryptoquote) is a (short) message that has been transformed by a so-called "simple substitution cipher". The fabled "Caesar shift" is one of these, wherein the ciphertext is made from the plaintext by substituting for each letter the one three places to the right in the alphabet, modulo 26: A becomes D, X becomes B, L becomes P, and so on. The Ciphergram Solution Assistant makes these assumptions about the cipher: No cipher letter may stand for itself in the plaintext. Each cipher letter stands for a unique plaintext letter, and each plaintext letter stands for a unique cipher letter (1:1 mapping). The spacing and punctuation of the plaintext has been preserved. The plaintext was spelled correctly throughout. WARNING! The results of the Ciphergram Solution Assistant are not guaranteed or warranted in any way. These results should NOT be used as the basis of any commercial contract, obligation, or transaction. The Ciphergram Solution Assistant will do the best it can to solve the ciphergram. It usually comes close to the "real" answer, with just a few wrong letters. Requirements for Installation: 386 or higher processor running Windows (most versions will work). Windows 3.1x needs Win32s. If you don't have Win32s, you may be able to download it -- search for win32s.zip. Installation: Make a directory that will hold the executable and the word list. Examples: C:\WSPOOK C:\Program Files\WSPOOK C:\Users\<login_name>\My Documents\Spook CD to that directory. Download the archive WSPOOKA.ZIP into the directory, and unpack it either by running PKUNZIP or WinZIP on it, or by (for newer Windows versions) double-clicking it and selecting Extract all. Once the archive is unpacked, delete it (WSPOOKA.ZIP). Make a shortcut for WSPOOK; make it point to the executable. Examples: C:\WSPOOK\WSPOOK.EXE C:\Program Files\WSPOOK\WSPOOK.EXE C:\Users\<login_name>\My Documents\Spook\WSPOOK.EXE Make sure the directory you chose contains at least the wordlist file NLIST, the executable WSPOOK.EXE, and one or both of the help files WSPOOK.HLP and WSPOOK_HELP.PDF. If you are running as a Standard User (non-administrator), as you definitely should, you will probably need the user ID and password for an administrator (elevated) account to allow the WSPOOK program to run for the first time. Removal: To remove (uninstall) WSPOOK, delete the icon you made, and delete the files listed in the file rebuild.txt, including rebuild.txt, and finally delete the directory these files were in. Use: Execute the program, either by running it (e.g. from the File Manager) or by double-clicking the icon you made. Enter the cryptoquote in the upper window division, and enter the attribute in the second division. The "attribute" is the "author"; in the newspapers, it is what follows the dash near the end. The third division is for giving the CSA hints about the deciphering key; leave it blank at first. See the help information built into the CSA for more information. You can cut/paste the entries from somewhere else (e.g. the notepad) if you want to. Click "Decipher" under the "Command" menu. Shortly (after the program reads the word list) the term "Working..." will appear in the bottom division. Some time later, the solution (the best WSPOOK can do) will appear in the bottom division. Hints: If you get garbage for an answer, or the program runs a very long time, please check that: The cipher text is entered in the form correctly. The attribution (signature or author) is NOT included in the ciphergram, but IS entered in its proper box. The Ciphergram Solution Assistant ignores punctuation by treating it as white space, except for the apostrophe. Consequently, if a word is split by a hyphen (or any other character not a letter), it will be treated as two words. It may help to retype it as one word without the hyphen. The Ciphergram Solution Assistant assumes that the ONLY one-letter words are A and I. If the attribution has initials, as in N. F. XYYHNYV, including that in the ciphergram would make solution impossible, unless the N and F just happen to represent A and I. With the above in mind, it sometimes helps to include the attribution (without initials, if any) in the ciphergram, as well as in the box, but usually it does not. Known Problems: There is no provision for operation without a mouse. If you kill the WSPOOK task before the solution appears, the main window disappears, but the executable task may continue to completion -- this is apparently harmless, but it uses a lot of CPU time. Author: K. L. Dunn k.l.dunn@ieee.org