Welcome to the README for the Coder app!
Coder is a simple, terminal based application that encrypts text via the Vigenère cipher. It supports two "modes": relaxed and strict. In relaxed mode, codes are not case-sensitive, punctuation is not encrypted, and keys can only contain letters, numbers, and spaces. In strict mode, ciphertext is case-sensitive, punctuation is encrypted, and keys can contain most punctuation.
To install the app from source, download the tarball for the version that you wish to install (be sure to download the file from the main github repo, not the Releases page). Or, if you prefer, you can download the source files directly (coder, encryption.rb, README.md). After unpacking the tarball, place the "coder" file in "/usr/local/bin". Place "encryption.rb" in "/usr/local/share/ruby/vendor_ruby/coder". You should now be able to run the app by using the command coder.
To install the application from a binary installer, please download either the RPM or DEB file from the Releases page. If there is not a .deb file for a release, you will have to install the app from source.
Commands are given in the following form:
coder [--option-name] [option-value]
If an option accepts a value, type it immediately after the flag.
If you would like to view a help message pass the --help or -h flag to the app: coder -h.
To determine whether the app will encrypt or decrypt the text, use either the --encrypt or --decrypt flag. The default is encrypt.
To enable strict mode, (see above) pass the --strict flag. The app will use relaxed mode by default.
To specify the text to encrypt, pass the --text option followed by the text you want to use. Be sure to enclose the text in single quotation marks (double quotations may not work) if the text contains spaces or special characters.
To specify the key with which to encrypt or decrypt the text with, use the --key option: coder ... --key KEY. In relaxed mode keys may contain letters, numbers, and spaces only.
To read from a file instead of specifying text directly, use the --file option like so: coder ... --file PATH_TO_FILE
To output the results of the encryption (or decryption) to a file use the --output option. For example: coder ... --output PATH_TO_FILE. If the file already exists, then it will be completely overwritten. If not, a new file will be created.