Talk:Lorenz SZ 40/42

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Page name

This page certainly must be renamed to Lorenz cipher

 -- JidGom 11:15, 21 Aug 2003 (UTC)

I created a redirect instead. MattH 00:41, 22 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Cipher vs Cyper

This is wrong. Cypher is not even a word (but it's the name of a character in the movie The Matrix ;-)) and is spelled cipher all over the article. That's a typo that hasn't been caught soon enough. Just rename that damn article.

 -- JidGom 08:25, 22 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Cypher is a mainly British variant of cipher. We don't change such spellings. -- Someone else 08:32, 22 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Hey, all. The cypher v cipher question has had a considerable airing at Talk:Cryptography. Some changes were made in the WP spelling list to accomodate both, and their variants. *y* is indeed mostly British and probably being displaced in favor of *i*, but both are still in live use, and so acceptable spelling. Since this is English, in which marine animals with fins may be legimately spelled ghoti, in GBS' famous example, Ms Fidditch was and remains a little out of step with the actual language. So is (eternally) Nero Wolfe. Until god intervenes and cleans up English orthography, we're just going to have to live with the long ago decision to start writing the language before the phonemic shifts more or less finished. Insanity, of course, but sanctioned by custom. Did Burke approve? ww 16:59, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

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I know the policy is to allow both spellings (look, cypher is not a british variant, ok? Even us Brits think it looks archaic), but for consistency, I'm ignoring that and changing it to cipher... mwahahaha --Birkett

Many people have chosen to use this spelling. Respect that Mintguy (T)

Ok, I'm sorry. I've stopped now. Birkett 17:51, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Sigh. People once upon a time chose to use this spelling; however, nobody uses the "cypher" spelling any more when writing about cryptography (have a look at the booklist at Wikipedia:WikiProject Cryptography/Cipher vs Cypher). The only reason we have it on Wikipedia at all is because a major contributer (User:Ww) uses it. — Matt 23:37, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Well, if it's largely one person who uses it, can't a vote be held or something like that? Then if the majority of people who are involved actually do prefer cipher, I can help change it again... Birkett

Ahem. May I point you all at this page (http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/archive/b/B06/BO6-028.html), which is an image reproduction of the relevant page from the GC&CS Cryptographic Dictionary (1944), where you may find the following entry (reproduced verbatim):

CYPHER: see cipher.

I believe this is fairly conclusive? Mr. Alan Turing himself has spoken! :-) Noel (talk) 21:00, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Was Colossus a computer

The Colossus was not a "programmable computer" as we think of them; in Brian Randall, Colossus: Godfather of the Computer he writes:

"there is no question of it being an actual stored program computer." (emphasis his)

So I will tweak that sentence to more accurately describe it. Noel (talk) 03:47, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

By the way, where might I find the above reference by Randall? (I'm trying to build up my Colossus reading list). — Matt Crypto 19:24, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

It's alright, found it on Colossus computer. — Matt Crypto 19:41, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Yah, I didn't want to spam references over every page in sight; some do naturally fall onto more than one page, but in general I'm trying to keep them reasonable in length.

PS: This whole "was Colossus a computer" thing is something I want to go into more, but I will do so at Talk:Colossus computer. Noel (talk) 21:00, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)