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Home Forums The Sixteenth National Cipher Challenge: The Lost Legion Any way to get formatted text?

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  • #30829
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hi, I was just wondering if anyone has figured out a way to get your 100% correct answer in a formatted shape, so that it’s easier to follow along (by formatted i mainly mean spaces between the words, and if possible, even punctuation, but the latter is not as important to me).
    If there isn’t, i kind of understand that if you solved 98% and got the structure, it would make cracking it much easier, but why not introduce something like this for people who get 100%?
    So far this is mainly aimed at 2B for this year, as i am just too lazy to space everything out or struggle reading text with no spaces :/

    Thanks all!

    #30888
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    If you look back at the challenge page after it closes the correct formatted answer should be there

    #31041
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Several participants have their own programs to insert spaces into an unbroken string of deciphered text. Splitting into bona fide words is simple enough, but accommodating specialist names and abbreviations together with contextualizing the result is disproportionately hungry on processing power and requires constant dictionary updates and reference to extreme data such as the Google Web Trillion Word Corpus. (more info: google Peter Norvig)

    For example YOUTHINK might be split as YOU THINK, but if the message concerned tattoos, it might be YOUTH INK.

    Punctuation would take the challenge to another level. A leisurely perusal of punctuation style guides confirms that “you can’t please all of the people all of the time”! (with apologies to poet John Lydgate). Any solution is likely to be heuristic and can only deal in probabilities rather than guarantee an accuracy.

    The National Cipher Challenges do not require spacing or punctuation. However, I do agree that readability is much improved with at least spaces between words.

    #31086
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Lineage Noir: “Any solution is likely to … only deal in probabilities rather than guarantee an accuracy.” is what i was thinking as well, which is why i wasn’t really looking for a program. However, you comment does make me interested into researching the things you have mentioned, so thanks for that!
    What i had in mind was ‘Harry’ letting us know what the text is with spaces if we got it 100%, and Comet’s point made me realise that yeah, they do just give it to you after the week has finished. Thanks!

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