Cryptographic Calculator

zka.lc

79 pointsaltro3 comments

https://zka.lc/about has more information—maybe read that one first.

To the OP: I think this tool would be much more useful/accessible if one could name the cryptographic system, the operation (sign, verify, encrypt, decrypt, hash), specify the key and message sizes, then compute the operational cost. Right now someone must first figure out how to decompose their primitives into low-level operations which are going to be very implementation and library-specific.

Piling on with some GUI-level tweaks:

I'd ditch the "dropdown menus that look like links". (Estimating, implemented, using.) You want new visitors to instantly know from shapes that it's a form with specific interactive areas, rather than a line of really avant-garde poetry, or a suspiciously-empty page that might've failed to render fully.

The searchable dropdown on the left could use a white background. As-is, its boundaries are invisible, and the down-arrow (the only hint of interactivity) is faint, as is the magnifying-glass icon which hints someone can type to search.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com