SHA-256 Animation
Learning and science
cryptography education
SHOW HN2020
How HN took it
25 positive, 13 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 3 critical, out of 43 comments about the project. Thread score +0.47.
Docs: 6 for, 1 againstIdea: 6 for, 0 againstDesign: 5 for, 0 againstExecution: 4 for, 0 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Animation is mesmerizing and clear for learning
From 3 comments
Like it a lot. Not sure how useful it is but just looking at it is mesmerizing, well done!
w0utert on HNThis is phenomenal. The animations at the top were way too quick for me to understand, but they pulled me in. The step-by-step explanations below (alongside the relevant parts of…
dnadler on HNThis is amazing! Really fun to watch the example in the readme and just shows how much happens behind the scenes nearly instantly.
iBotPeaches on HN
Companion YouTube video explains the code well
From 2 comments
Here's the author doing an in-depth explanation of how SHA-256 works using this code: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9EbD6iY9zI I'm halfway through, but looks very well done,…
1_player on HNYou need to watch his video, very cool, it really helps to understand how this works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9EbD6iY9zI
folli on HN
Useful teaching tool
From 2 comments
This is a great idea of showing something that is at first very complex. Could be used in Discreet Mathematics to teach students!
baicunko on HNI get it! Fantastic work. I hope you get lots of requests to include it in teaching materials.
kleer001 on HN
Objections
Animation runs too fast to follow
From 2 comments
This is phenomenal. The animations at the top were way too quick for me to understand, but they pulled me in. The step-by-step explanations below (alongside the relevant parts of…
dnadler on HNLove the animations but they go by too fast. It would be nice if you could add a single step capability so the user could follow along at human pace. Also, I wanted to see how…
sizzzzlerz on HN
Terminal redraw approach questioned, not a real hash implementation
From 2 comments
Love the animations but they go by too fast. It would be nice if you could add a single step capability so the user could follow along at human pace. Also, I wanted to see how…
sizzzzlerz on HNCongratulations on the worlds slowest and useful SHA-256 implementation! :)
imoverclocked on HN
Video claim that every input has a unique hash is technically wrong
From 2 comments
There's a few things in there that are factually incorrect -- in particular, the false notion that "every input has a unique output" can be quite dangerous in some cryptographic…
chias on HNat 1:08 in the video, that is exactly what he claims: "So every piece of data in the world has its own unique hash digest." This is false for the reasons apeescape describes:…
chias on HN
Requests
Add single-step mode
From 1 comment
Love the animations but they go by too fast. It would be nice if you could add a single step capability so the user could follow along at human pace. Also, I wanted to see how…
sizzzzlerz on HN
Animations for other hash or encryption algorithms such as ECDSA and AES
From 2 comments
This is so interesting to watch. Can you do it for other hash or encryption methods?
maallooc on HNecdsa would be good
dylkil on HN
Python version
From 1 comment
Great work! Any idea where we may find an equivalent in Python?
gtsnexp on HN
Questions
Why were the Sigma rotation parameters chosen
From 2 comments
I wanted to understand how SHA-256 works, so I made a terminal animation that shows the bitwise operations at each step. I wrote a text guide in the README.md to explain what's…
inersha on HNThat's also the explanation the author gives in chapter 4. I'm more interested in how they came up with the parameters for the sigma functions. I'm sure it's described somewhere.
jmiserez on HN
How the terminal output updates in place
From 1 comment
Love the animations but they go by too fast. It would be nice if you could add a single step capability so the user could follow along at human pace. Also, I wanted to see how…
sizzzzlerz on HN
Alternatives named
Ian Coleman-style and other AES visualisations such as jrvidal aes-demo
From 2 comments
Shameless plug: https://jrvidal.github.io/aes-demo/ I like this one better though.
jrvidal on HNThis looks great, though it requires quite sometime to go through it (and figure out what could possibly be understood by someone with knowledge of programming and bit wise…
newscracker on HN