Challenge #177: Ham Hamlet

[JosephSerpis]

Challenge Completed

[kelly_gilbert]

OK, this one was pretty fun once I got going! I couldn't come up with a more automated solution, so I did visual inspection (as it looks like most others did).

Workflow:

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Process:

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• Break the input into two-character segments (2 encoded chars = 1 output char)
• As expected, the most-common characters are a (qd) and y (ac), which we are given
  
  
  
• ks is also very common (it’s nearly as common as a and y, so it would have to occur in all or nearly all words). Guess that this is a space.
• Use spaces as a delimiter to break out the individual words.

• The most-common word is three characters, not beginning with a vowel. Assume this is the. Now we know t, h, and e.
  
  
• The next-most-common word (#3) is a_ _  -->  assume this is and. Now, we know n and d.
• The next word (#4) is a single vowel. Since we already have a, assume this is I.
• Then, we have two words (5-6) that start with the same letter, but one ends in -yay. So, we know #6 is a 2-letter word starting with a vowel, and #5 is a 2-letter word ending with that same vowel. The most-likely ending vowel for a 2-letter word would be o.
• #9 is _n, and we’ve already used o, so this must be i. 9C (capitalized) was I, so 9c is probably i.

• Assuming a capitalized second character means the letter is capitalized, go back and add capitals for the letters we already know (A, Y, T, H, E, N, D, O).

• Since we already know t, #12 is probably is (6d=s/6D=S)
  

• Moving down the list, #15 is with --> now we know w/W
  
  
  
• 2c (#17) and kc are either b or m (me/my or be/by)

• Since we know not, the next-most-common _o_ word is for. Guess #18 is for. We now know f/F/r/R
• Now we have enough character mappings to run the macro and decode the string

[rmassambane]

Took me a while to get there and I might have made a few mistakes along the way. But here it is.

[mbogusz]

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