From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 95 20:41:15 PDT
To: Childers James <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Newbie Crypto question: MOD?
Message-ID: <ac80e66d19021004e38b@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 8:39 PM 9/16/95, Childers James wrote:
>Ok folks, I recently received "Applied Cryptography" as a gift, and just
>have one question: How does the MOD function work in crypto functions? It
>seems to work differently than what I've seen before, i.e.: C/C++ MOD. I
>also didn't see anything in TCM's FAQ...
>
>If this is considered noise, I apologize in advance.

I didn't put anything in my FAQ about "mod" because my FAQ was not a crypto
FAQ per se, of which there are at least two. (Cf. sci.crypt for regular
pointers.)

And I doubt that either of these FAQs discusses the mod function, though I
haven't checked.

In any case, Schneier devotes several pages to mod, starting with "You all
learned modular arithmetic in school; it was called "clock arithmetic"" (p.
198).

After defining it, Schneier goes on to discuss its use in modern cryptography.

If this isn't enough of an explanation, I don't know what more to say.

--Tim May

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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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