🚀 go-pugleaf

hollasch@kpc.com (Steve Hollasch) writes:
:     I was playing around the other day with developing a transcripted
: shorthand that is fairly secure.  [...]
:     So are there other tricks for developing such an encryption?  Are
: there any references for this sort of thing?  Also, does anybody know 
: how many different types of shorthand there are?

In the past few hundred years, a staggering variety of shorthand
systems have been developed.  Of course, their heyday is long past,
but most libraries still have some shorthand manuals on their shelves.
I suggest you check one out; the shorthand systems are often
quiet inventive.  The "compression" schemes devised to make 
shorthand succinct and easy to write quickly are similar to 
what you might devise for a simple crypto system.  The shorthand
systems, in general, are not just simple substitution ciphers.

I recall reading a story--possibly in _The Codebreakers_--of a
fellow who labored for decades on deciphering the volumnious
works of another deceased individual, works which were written
in an obscure shorthand dialect.  He succeeded in "breaking" the
system after years of intensive effort. But then shortly afterwards 
the "key" was found in the form of a description of the 
long-forgotten shorthand system.  Must have made him feel awful.