I’m starting an open (i.e. never ending) challenge for all of the programmers out there. I doubt it’s been written yet but I’m looking for a multi-lingual substitution cipher solver.
Polyglot Challenge
Prize: $20 cash (in your national currency), that and everybody and their monkey’s uncle will be using it
The Challenge:
Your challenge is to develop a program that is capable of solving substitution ciphers for English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Italian (Latin optional) cryptograms.
Conditions:
Must be able to solve all 6 languages with one program
Must be user friendly
Must be hosted online and at a safe site
Must work without downloading, I just want to be able to pop in and use it then leave
Gotta be free
No logins needed
Has to be your own work, you can start with someone else’s work (Sourceforge) or a fresh start but the final product must be from your own sweat and tears
Submission:
First person with one that works and meets the conditions wins
Just comment below with the link we can follow
I reserve the right to delete or edit any of the comments as I see fit.
Deadline:
Never, it’s over when someone makes it
The Winner:
Should be obvious. Whoever submits a link to a program they made that fits the contest requirements first wins the money.
Questions?
I have one that relies upon the spacing of your words and really does not work with non-letter characters, like the apostrophe in “don’t.” I added multi-language support in the hopes that it meets the contest criteria.
HOWEVER, I would rather someone one-up my program and collect the prize for themselves. I’ll forgo the reward and just leave the pot there for someone else to collect.
Kryptos seems like a ripe plum well within reach of even a modestly talented programmer. Especially with the berlin clue, it seems weird no one has beat it yet.