JCrypTool is an e-learning platform presenting cryptography and cryptanalysis in a modern and easy-to-use fashion. It is built as platform-independent open-source software based on Java and Eclipse (Rich Client Platform, RCP).
Milestone 3, available from today, of JCrypTool continues the changes started in the Milestone 2 release. The complete JCrypTool platform is now completely available in German and English, automatically adapted according to the client system settings. The welcome page is much more complete and contains the most important information about JCrypTool. Online help contains more background information and context help is available for a lot of parts. Even Cheat Sheet support is included. Milestone 3 brings user experience and user assistance to a new level.
Other changes include a hex editor with much better performance, a new and improved update manager/ update site as well as different extensions to the user interface: Besides some cleanup work in the toolbar and menu bar we newly developed the file explorer which makes it easy for you to open a file and start some cryptographic operations on it. The algorithms view was extended as well and is now the control center for all JCrypTool crypto plug-ins. This menu (in the JCrypTool perspective) will be heavily enhanced in Milestone 4 for all algorithm families.
JCrypTool now consists of only two perspectives:
• The JCrypTool perspective is the default perspective: It makes the first steps with cryptology easy for the users.
• The FlexiProvider perspective contains a big bunch of modern algorithms and allows users to customize the algorithm and protocol parameters in detail.
As before, JCrypTool milestone 3 is available for Linux, Mac and Windows and requires Java 1.5. The new version is NOT available via the update site introduced in milestone 2, so you will have to download the archive manually (http://sourceforge.net/projects/jcryptool). We promise to improve that in the near future!