Re: Will Ada-95 Programs Written in MS Windows Run in MacOS and Linux Without Some Tweaking.

[Austin Obyrne <austin.obyrne@hotmail.com>]

On Monday, December 16, 2013 11:46:53 AM UTC, Simon Wright wrote:
> Austin Obyrne <austin.obyrne@hotmail.com> writes: > The transition of this crypto from Windows to Mac is quite something > and to my limited experience is a formidable task. No. I've put extensions at [1]; the README.txt says ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The files here are intended to work with the SureCrypt software from http://www.adacryptpages.com. They are written against version 85610, and are relatively minor modifications of that software, so the copyright status remains that of the original (Copyright © 2003 Austin O'Byrne). There are two new programs: encrypt and decrypt. Encrypt usage: encrypt original-plaintext ciphertext Decrypt usage: decrypt ciphertext decrypted-plaintext Note that in spite of the use of the word "text" above the programs will work with binary data. The programs will work on Unix and Windows systems. Data encrypted on one can be decrypted on the other if required. Using a recent GNAT compiler, the programs can be built using the supplied cipher.gpr: gnatmake -p -P cipher Simon Wright simon@pushface.org December 2013 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From the software point of view, note that on Linux (which has a case-sensitive file system) you should use lower case for Ada source file names, so that, for example, Alices_Digital_Signature.ads becomes alices_digital_signature.ads. From the practical point of view, I think that the size of the encrypted files will be a serious issue. With the current code, they come out *more* *than* *30* *times* the size of the original, so that the encrypted SureCrypt85610.zip comes out at about 870 megabytes. Even if you output the encrypted data in binary the multiplier will be 12 (each byte of the original is encrypted as 3 integers). [1] https://www.dropbox.com/sh/a84i0jb8jv48nev/Q143ubNUWC

I never hoped to be competitive in implementing this crypto at the level of Ada programming and nuances of CS to be employed that you guys bandy about with such ease. 

A program that encrypted and decrypted (warts 'n all)was as much as I ever hoped for but it would have to demonstrate the potential of the vector mathematics as a medium for future.  

There still isn't a cipher out there that can be called really unbreakable and I envisage a huge surge at layman level in the next few years for something they can use and rely on whether or not they understan how it works.

Austin