Breaking the Code Breaking the Code Breaking the Code is a 1986 play by Hugh Whitemore about British mathematician Alan Turing, who was a key player in the breaking of the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park during World War II and a pioneer of computer science. The play thematically links Turing's cryptographic activities with his attempts to grapple with his homosexuality. It was adapted as a 1996 television film directed by Herbert Wise, with Derek Jacobi reprising his stage role as Turing. Following an eight-month run at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London's West End beginning on 21 October 1986, the play
Enigma machine indicator procedures were two of the main weaknesses that made cracking Enigma possible. One of the earliest "indicator procedures" for the Enigma was cryptographically flawed and allowed Polish cryptanalysts to make the initial breaks into the plugboard Enigma. The procedure had the operator set his machine in accordance with the secret settings that all operators on the net shared. The settings included an initial position for the rotors (the "Grundstellung"), say, "AOH". The operator turned his rotors until "AOH" was visible through the rotor windows. At that point, the operator chose his own arbitrary starting position for the message he