Date: Thu, 31 May 2012 20:56:26 +0000
> First, reprinting Shakespeare's works using flags would make it immediately
> and utterly illegible to most speakers of English. So they would fail the test
> of being recognizably the same letter.
FWIW: The "Alpha" flag doesn't mean "A". For example it also means "Diver Down". Most of the flags have other meanings beyond just a letter, like Quebec & Quarantine. So it's not just a substitution cipher. Combinations can also have special meanings. Additionally, repeaters make it more complicated than a simple substitution cipher, eg: November, Oscar, Repeat2, Repeat1 for noon == 4 different flags for 2 letters.
[Description: ICS November.svg]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ICS_November.svg>
[Description: ICS Oscar.svg]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ICS_Oscar.svg>
[Description: ICS Repeat Two.svg]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ICS_Repeat_Two.svg>
[Description: ICS Repeat One.svg]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ICS_Repeat_One.svg>
-Shawn
