#pset2

[moocs-r-us]

VIGENERE COMPLETE

I must have been working on Vigenere for a week and a half, off and on.  I finally got it this evening.  I was so close for so long, and I had this idea in my mind about what the code should be like.  But, that’s the funny thing about this course... pretty much every time, the solution I come up with is on a whim and is nothing like what I originally envision.  Plus, it’s a more elegant solution (I think, at least!).  

Well, on to pset3!

[babydatajournalism]

At last -- the final problem in pset2 in CS50. This one really kicked me up and down the block. It was this requirement that made it so hard for me:

if your code is about to apply the jth character of k to the ith character of p, but the latter proves to be a non-alphabetical character, you must wait to apply that jth character of k to the next alphabetical character in p; you must not yet advance to the next character in k.

I'm very glad to have that one solved!

This program encrypts messages using Vigenère’s cipher. Instead of advancing each letter in the plaintext by the same number, Vigenère’s cipher uses a keyword, and each letter in the keyword (converted to a number) advances a letter in the plaintext. So keyword[0] is used to "rotate" plaintext[0] forward in the alphabet that many places. Next, keyword[1] is used to "rotate" plaintext[1] forward in the alphabet that many places. And so on until it is done.