DollCode Text Encoder/Decoder

A C# implementation of the text-compatible dollcode encoding system, reverse-engineered from the now-defunct dollcode.v01dlabs.sh website.

About

This project recreates the text encoding functionality from the original dollcode site that no longer exists. It was reverse-engineered using:

• The dollcode.rs Rust crate (which only supports number encoding)
• Information from noe.sh/dollcode about the base-3 encoding system
• Analysis of example encoded strings to determine the text encoding algorithm

Dollcode is a trinary (base-3) encoding system using Unicode block characters. The original site supported encoding both pure numbers and text, but used different encoding schemes for each. This implementation focuses on the text-compatible version.

How It Works

• Each character is converted to its Unicode codepoint
• The codepoint is encoded using base-3 with digits {1,2,3}
• Digits are mapped to characters: 1→▖, 2→▘, 3→▌
• Character groups are separated by zero-width joiners (U+200D)
• Example: Hello → ▘▖▘▌‍▌▖▌▘‍▌▘▘▌‍▌▘▘▌‍▌▘▌▌‍

Usage

Interactive REPL Mode

Run without arguments to start the interactive mode:

dotnet run

Commands available in REPL:

encode <text>  or  e <text>  - Encode text to dollcode
decode <code>  or  d <code>  - Decode dollcode to text
set <1|2|3|sep> <char>       - Set character mapping
show                         - Show current character set
reset                        - Reset to default characters
help                         - Show help
exit  or  quit               - Exit REPL

Command-line Mode

Encode text:

dotnet run -- encode "Hello, World!"
dotnet run -- e "Hello, World!"

Decode dollcode:

dotnet run -- decode "▘▖▘▌‍▌▖▌▘‍▌▘▘▌‍▌▘▘▌‍▌▘▌▌‍"
dotnet run -- d "▘▖▘▌‍▌▖▌▘‍▌▘▘▌‍▌▘▘▌‍▌▘▌▌‍"

Custom Character Sets

You can customize the characters used for encoding! This works with emojis and any Unicode characters:

dollcode> set 1 🌟
dollcode> set 2 ⭐
dollcode> set 3 ✨
dollcode> set sep |
dollcode> show
Current character set:
  Char1 (1): 🌟
  Char2 (2): ⭐
  Char3 (3): ✨
  Separator: |

dollcode> e Hello
⭐🌟⭐✨|✨🌟✨⭐|✨⭐⭐✨|✨⭐⭐✨|✨⭐✨✨|

Examples

# Standard encoding
$ dotnet run -- encode "#364,998"
▌▘▘‍▖▘▖▌‍▖▘▘▌‍▖▘▘▖‍▖▖▘▘‍▖▘▌▌‍▖▘▌▌‍▖▘▌▘‍

# Decoding
$ dotnet run -- decode "▌▘▘‍▖▘▖▌‍▖▘▘▌‍▖▘▘▖‍▖▖▘▘‍▖▘▌▌‍▖▘▌▌‍▖▘▌▘‍"
#364,998

# Interactive mode
$ dotnet run
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════╗
║   DollCode Text Encoder/Decoder - REPL   ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════╝

dollcode> e dollcode
▌▖▌▖‍▌▘▌▌‍▌▘▘▌‍▌▘▘▌‍▌▖▘▌‍▌▘▌▌‍▌▖▌▖‍▌▖▌▘‍

dollcode> exit

Building

Requires .NET 9.0 SDK:

dotnet build
dotnet run

Technical Details

• Default Characters: ▖ (U+2596), ▘ (U+2598), ▌ (U+258C)
• Default Separator: Zero-width joiner (U+200D)
• Encoding: Base-3 system with digits {1,2,3} instead of {0,1,2}
• Character Order: Most significant bit first (MSB-first)

Differences from Number-Only Encoding

The Rust crate at dollcode.rs implements number-only encoding, which produces different output than text encoding. This implementation focuses on the text-compatible version that was available on the original dollcode.v01dlabs.sh site.

License

This is a reverse-engineered implementation for educational and practical use.