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Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac 1993 September
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Read Me - Rot-13
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1993-06-20
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ROT-13 Scrap. Copyright © 1993 by Ray Arachelian. All Rights Reserved.
NOTE: This software and its documentation is distributed 'AS IS' and
without warranties as to performance, merchantability, fitness for any
particular purpose, or any other warranty either implied or express.
Because of the various software and hardware environments in which this
software may be used, no warranty of any kind can be provided. In no
event shall the author of this program be held liable for any damages
(real or imagined, physical, or to Steve Ebener's Ego) or losses arising
out of the use or misuse of this software.
This software is distributed as PoliticalWare. It is copyrighted by
the author however you may distribute it freely. If you enjoy the
use of this software and wish to continue to do so, please send a
message to Steve Ebener, the current EchoMac Moderator asking him to
reverse his decision about banishing HQX and ROT-13 off EchoMac. Send
me a copy of this message and I'll tell you how to get rid of the
nag screen.
=======================================================================
A simple tutorial on ROT-13:
Rot-13 is a standard program which has been used for ages on
the internet to hide the punchlines to jokes. It is so simple
that no special software or hardware is needed to decode it.
The use of a simple letter substitution table is all it is.
The following tables show that letters are substituted with
the 13th counterpart. (The English alphabet has 26 letters,
hence, 13 in the first half and 13 in the second half.)
The algorith, (or recipie if you will,) is simple. Just
replace a letter from one half with the corresponding
letter in the second half as shown in these tables:
PLAIN: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
ROT13: NOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLM
INDEX: 12345678901234567890123456
: 1 2
PLAIN: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
ROT13: nopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm
PLAIN: 0123456789!@#$%^&*(){}[]\|;:'",<.>/?`~
ROT13: 0123456789!@#$%^&*(){}[]\|;:'",<.>/?`~
Hence, ROT-13 is merely a letter substition as follows:
A-N B-O C-P D-Q E-R F-S G-T H-U I-V J-W K-X L-Y M-Z
As can be seen, only letters are affected. Numbers and
other ASCII symbols such as punctuation, parens, etc. are
left untouched.
ROT-13 is >NOT< an encryption program. It does not provide
privacy, however, it's purpose is actually to let users view
ROT-13'ed messages posted on the internet. ROT-13 originally
started out as a program to hide punchlines to offensive
jokes and the giving away of endings to movies in movie
reviews.
In my attempt to bring this program into popularity on
FidoNet (EchoMac specifically,) I managed to step on the
moderator's toes by writing a message which was totally
encoded with ROT-13. He instantly banished me from the
conference stating that FidoNet rules forbid encrypted
material because FidoNet cannot provide for privacy
due to possibly sysop liabilities for user misconduct.
The rule he used to banish me does not apply since ROT-13
is not meant to provide privacy, and cannot do so. Therefore
he banished me unjustly. Additionally, as he's just been
voted in, Steve Ebener has decided to revoke the allowing
of HQX'ed files. Previously, they were allowed on
EchoMac as long as they were relatively short. Steve
Ebener seems to be cutting user rights down left and right
and should be removed as moderator of EchoMac.
I have written this program and the above documentation
in order to aid users to become aquiented with ROT-13.
This program is political-ware. I do not ask for money, I
ask instead that you mail a letter asking Steve Ebener to
allow HQX'ed messages, ROT-13 usage, and to stop banishing
users with which he does not agree. Please do not use
this as an opportunity to send flame mail. I won't be
responsible for any harrasment charges against you if you do.
I'm asking you to send a simple letter stating that you oppose
his decision against allowing ROT-13 and HQX on EchoMac will
do. :-) If he doesn't revoke his decision on this matter,
I ask that you vote him out as EchoMac moderator. Mind you
this is the same type of letter you'd send your congress
person telling him that you won't vote for him if he doesn't
address a specific issue.
If by some stroke of luck you should get your hands on this
program after Steve Ebener is kicked out of office, or
allows ROT-13 and HQX on EchoMac, don't bother him. :-) To
find out, just go and read EchoMac until the rules are posted.
If you see mention of anything against ROT-13 or HQX, please
send the letter immediatly. This program has been released on
6-20-1993.
Email me a copy of the letter you sent him and I'll tell
you how to disable the nag screen.
Steve Ebener's email address is:
Steve Ebener @1:152/42 (fidonet)
Steve.Ebener@f42.n152.z1.fidonet.org (internet)
His BBS phone number: 503-747-6098
My Email addresses:
Ray Arachelian @1:2603/204 (fidonet)
rarachel@ishara.poly.edu (internet)
Thank you for your support, and enjoy the program.
========================================================
This program converts a text clipboard to ROT-13,
or a ROT-13'ed clipboard into text. To use it simply
put it in your Apple Menu, or somewhere accessible like
on your desktop. Then you just go in your favorite
word processor or text editor, select some text, copy it
to the clipboard using Command-C (or if you prefer cut
it to the clipboard.) Launch this program. Click the
mouse button to get past the nag screen. Go back to
your editor and select paste.
This is very useful in conjunction with a terminal
program. This way you can cut and paste ROT-13'ed text
online and use it with your Mac.
In addition, this new release of this program will
also allow you to drag and drop a TEXT file onto the
program. The program will then launch itself, and
create a file called 13-filename which is the
ROT-13 encoded/decoded file. (This is for Sys 7
only!) However, if you do have a text scrap in the
clipboard at the same time, both the file and the
text scrap will be processed.
You might wish to increase the ammount of memory
available to this program by using the File Get Info
command on it from the Finder if you're going to be
using large text scraps.
Please spread this program around, and enjoy it!
(This assumes System 7, or at least Multifinder.)