Zoervleis

Zoervleis is a C# tool to convert hashes into human-readable and human-friendly strings. At the moment this is done in one of two ways. One can use HumanHash to convert a hash into a sequence of words. One can also use DigitHash to turn a hash into a sequence of integers. Although DigitHash is more information dense, HumanHash provides a better way for humans to remember the words and detect errors themselves.

Index

• Example
• When to use
• Etymology
• To-Do
• License
• Attributions

Example

We can use HumanHash as follows

var toHash = "Hello World"u8.ToArray();
var hash = SHA256.HashData(toHash);

var humanizedString = HumanHash.Humanize(hash);

// Output will be "orange-monkey-oranges-steak-asparagus-white"
Console.WriteLine(humanizedString); 

We can use DigitHash as follows

var toHash = "Hello World"u8.ToArray();
var hash = SHA256.HashData(toHash);

var humanizedString = DigitHash.Digitize(hash);

// Output will be "11109-73930-84387-59824-87079"
Console.WriteLine(humanizedString); 

Why

The reason this package was built was as follows: we generated contracts for sub-clients of our client A. These contracts were automatically generated and the final appearance of that contract would be influenced by around 100 data-points supplied by the sub-client. The sub-clients could generate intermediate contracts. Once they were happy with the result, they could sign the contract and upload it again to our platform.

However, client A wanted to be sure that they uploaded a contract containing the most recent data they filled in. This is where Zoervleis comes in. On every generated contract there is a human-readable and human-friendly hash code. During upload of the contract a sub-client needs to provide that code. We can then check whether the humanized hash is the same as the humanized hash we calculate on the back-end from the most recent data.

Etymology

The word Zoervleis might seem strange. It is the Limburgian name for a traditional stewed dish from there. The food is also referred to as a form of Hachée. Here we start to see the connection with this library:

The word hachée in French means chopped or ground, being the past participle of the verb hacher - to chop or grind.

This word has the same etymology as the word hash. Hence the name of the library.

To do

The following list includes ideas for what I still want to implement. I am open for suggestions.

• Multiple languages
• Custom dictionary support
• Arbitrary length dictionaries
• Error detection methods
• Dependency injection support
• Support for hashing-and-humanizing in one

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license.

Attributions

• This package is heavily inspired on the Python package humanhash.
• Cauldron icon was based off a creation by Wishforge.games in CC Attribution License via SVG Repo.