Process

Continuing with the circuit completed at the close of Exercise 3, I set about watching a couple videos about the Vail Cypher (aka Morse Code), creating a map of alphabet - dot/dash values with which to encrypt text input.

Much of the process was debugging code, which involved somewhat haphazard visits to GeeksforGeeks.org, StackOverflow, the C++ reference website (still need to understand/clarify how the underlying Particle programming language works and which languages it's similar to), and — towards the very end — consulting ChatGPT about the difference between different types of strings. (All code self-written, though.) One thing I wish I grasped more fully was the fact that characters in the language exclusively use single quotes, and strings double quotes...

After my code was in working order (though I am unsure how efficient/generous it is on the Photon 2), I tweaked the delays to more accurately reflect the cypher in use, adding a bookend() function at the start and end of each transmission of textual input to involve the second LED more.