Enigma – a walkthrough from Caesar ciphers to a working Enigma machine
I recently went on a long walk (to get newborn twins to nap) and ended up having a long discussion with ChatGPT in voice mode; asking it to explain how the Enigma machine worked and clarifying all the errors in my current understanding. I ended up going right back to basics and then subsequently spent ages failing to understand how it was cracked. Anyway, I built this in an attempt to recreate that arc for people (like me) who find Enigma intimidating: 13 stages, ~15 minutes, ending in a sandbox machine and the "no letter encrypts to itself" flaw that doomed it. Built with React + SVG +…
What it does
In the maker’s words, at launch
I recently went on a long walk (to get newborn twins to nap) and ended up having a long discussion with ChatGPT in voice mode; asking it to explain how the Enigma machine worked and clarifying all the errors in my current understanding. I ended up going right back to basics and then subsequently spent ages failing to understand how it was cracked. Anyway, I built this in an attempt to recreate that arc for people (like me) who find Enigma intimidating: 13 stages, ~15 minutes, ending in a sandbox machine and the "no letter encrypts to itself" flaw that doomed it. Built with React + SVG + GSAP. Rotor wirings and stepping are historically accurate; an Advanced toggle exposes Ringstellung and M4. Feedback very welcome, especially on stages that drag or lose you.
Does the same job
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Hola HN! Long time lurker, sometimes commentor, first time poster here. I’ve been working alongside my two co-founders and a few colleagues on a project I’m excited (and a little nervous) to share with you all! Like many of us, I’ve lived a tortured existence with AI coding (is it vibes?) over the past few months - I think November was a big moment with this. But, one thing I’ve noticed after building orchestration layer after orchestration layer is that the thing I always came back to was “what the hell is Claude Code actually doing?” Perhaps it’s because of the time Claude Code got…
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