Specifying and simulating rotor machines using Maple
G. P. McKeown · International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology · 1999
The symbolic computation language, Maple, is used tospecify and simulate the performance of time-varying substitution cipher systems known as rotor machines, the most famous examples of which are the ENIGMA machines used by Germany during World War II. A mathematical model is presented, initially for a one-rotor machine. The direct implementation of this model in Maple provides a prototype system from which more efficient implementations are derived via a process of program transformation. The one-rotor system is then generalized to an N -rotor system. The paper provides a tutorial on the application of symbolic computation to a problem of interest to students of mathematics and of computer science.