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I come to this advice board in search of advice.
I am writing a check balance program and I am trying to think of a way to save its data. It would be written in an encoded text file; done. But it's the format that I'm having trouble with. That is what the above poll is for.
Depends on how complex of an encoding you have. If you are just shootin outa buncha records and wan to easy read them in, then I suggest doing line based. I always stray from XML, for most applications that use XML, it is total overkill. I think, whaever is simpler but provides a reseasonable amount of room for expansion would be best. Don't forgot to have some sort of header in your config file, so if you significantly change things in the future you know what format you are working with and can work around it.
Whatever you feel comfortable working with. No one is nessicarily better than another (except for the tag based system... this is unneeded unless you'll be editing the files by hand)
Also, if you're looking for efficiency than read/write your files in binary mode.
Well, you see, the program isn't really complex, but it's completely dynamic. The program grows with new accounts, banks, and shrinks with deleting such. That's why I was thinking XML style. But as you said, that seems like overkill, and chances are, the program done well, I won't be hand-editing the data file.
*EDIT* and my codec is a simple ASCII value scramble.
Why are you even bothering encoding it then?Quote:
*EDIT* and my codec is a simple ASCII value scramble
So that an unsupervised friend while I'm cooking dinner or a trojan client can't read my money info!
But that's not the point. I was asking your opinion on how I should format the information, and I got that; so thank you.
Anyone who wants to read your money info bad enough will have little trouble figuring out your ASCII encoding method. Just a though, but a better encoding system might be a good idea depending on how widespread you want this app sent. But anyways, that is your choice.Quote:
Originally posted by CodeMonkey
So that an unsupervised friend while I'm cooking dinner or a trojan client can't read my money info!
Then you wouldn't mind giving an example :)
Heres a little theory/tutorial for EASY encryption and incredibly hard decryption (for hackers).
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------
GCC MATH IS GREAT
= 0
a = 1
b = 2
c = 3
d = 4
e = 5
f = 6
g = 7
h = 8
i = 9
j = 10
k = 11
l = 12
m = 13
n = 14
o = 15
p = 16
q = 17
r = 18
s = 19
t = 20
u = 21
v = 22
w = 23
x = 24
y = 25
z = 26
message (dimension arbitrary) = [M]
[(7 3 3)
(0 13 1)
(20 8 0)
(9 19 0)
(7 18 5)
(1 20 0)]
encoder = [E]
[(1 -2 2)
(-1 1 3)
(1 -1 -4)]
coded = [M]*[E] = [C]
[(7 -14 11)
(-12 12 35)
(12 -32 64)
(-10 1 75)
(-6 -1 48)
(-19 18 62)]
decoder = [E]^-1
[(-1 -10 -8)
(-1 -6 -5)
(0 -1 -1)]
decoded = [M]*[E]*[E]^-1 = [C]*[E]^-1 => [M]*[I] = [C]*[E]^-1 => [M] = [C]*[E]^-1
[(7 3 3)
(0 13 1)
(20 8 0)
(9 19 0)
(7 18 5)
(1 20 0)]
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your message matrix determines your encryption matrix, specifficaly the COLUMNS (vertical). If your message matrix is 2x6 then your encryption matrix would be a 6x6 matrix.
Keep in mind the larger your encryption matrix is, the less likely it can be brute forced. Also, use Sparse number in odd ranges, 1 -235 3000000000 888 are good ranges, while 1 3 9 and 7 would be likely to be found in a brute force program.
Also note that you encryption matrix MUST, i repeat MUST have an inverse matrix, to check, get out a graphing calculator, enter the matrix and press inverse key followed by enter and copy that down.
Thanks!