Listener 4247 Yod Jsyv Dox By Ottorino

[dr b]

A very enjoyable puzzle and thankfully not as daunting as it looks (much as Wagner, according to Mark Twain, is better than he sounds). I made either an inspired or lucky guess as to the nature of the codes and had then cracked long before the 10 misprints were revealed. To get this all to work out as it does was a masterful job of setting, so thanks Ottorino.

[jim360]

Fairly sure I have broken the three codes as well, but still miles away from solving this.

[Monkmonk]

I like codes but the main challenge here seemed to be to make sure that you had the right number of everything. Once that was the case the puzzle was finished.

[olichant]

Finally tied up the loose ends. I also made a lucky guess, and so have probably done this in the wrong order. As Dr B says, impressive how it all works out.

[jim360]

Just a slight bit of hesitation over the first letter of 17a -- I must have it right but can't see why.

An interesting idea and well-constructed, although took a while to get going -- perhaps longer than necessary, but a while all the same.

[olichant]

I apologise if my last comment sounded a little petulant - I'm still shuddering in awe of Construction. I found this puzzle a difficult slog, but there were some nice clues. 30d raised a smile.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, indeed more difficult than usual but what an impressive compilation. What superb setting. Thank you Ottorino!

[jockie]

Hats off to Ottorino (or to a clever bit of software?) which can locate coded and decoded pairs in this way. Even if it was e-composed it's still an amazing piece of construction and, as others have commented, not as fearsome as it first seemed. 2013 looks like being a truly vintage year.

[fallster]

I too liked the construction, with the pairs of words related by code, and it made for a fun puzzle to solve. It does get quite easier once the codes are discovered and I would be surprised if many get the message before they've gotten the codes.

[perseverer]

Quite an achievement for the setter- and for the solver to get it all to add up and make sure there are no slips.

[tilbee]

Ground this out over the afternoon. Any PDMs come early as the codes are discovered, but as others have said an excellent construction.

[Scorpius]

The grid is impressive and the coding clever, but I'm in a minority of one as far as enjoyment goes. I found it extremely tedious with lots of reverse coding from letters I had in the grid to get the answers from misprint clues. The misprints just made it harder but served no other purpose because I worked out the method of coding from the code clues long before I'd solved enough misprint clues to see anything. And there was no PDM at the end to make all that slog worth while.

[Cruncher]

An amazing feat of construction but just wondered if there was any other significance to the codes and the title. Otherwise I guess it seemed a bit abstract though very challenging

[Alekhine]

Enjoyable ... but there were a couple of dubious plurals, I thought.

1D was my favourite clue.

[starwalker]

Much as I admire the cinstruction, I'm pretty much with Scorpius on this one.

[Scorpius]

Like Alekhine, I thought that one of the plurals was dubious, since the word has a plural meaning without any S on the end. Entering the letter pattern of checked letters into various crossword software programs, including the Chambers CD ROM, fails to produce the pluralised version of the word, though it is yielded by the online Chambers Word Wizard, so perhaps it's ok. The editors have accepted it, anyway.
The other one that Alekhine must be referring is listed as a possible plural in several crossword programs, though it does sound ungainly.

As a general point, setters of barred cryptics are sometimes forced by thematic and grid constraints to use plural forms that one would never, or rarely, see in print elsewhere.

[dr b]

Once the nature of the coding became clear I took a few minutes to write a program to code/decode. This saved a lot of time subsequently; I can see how it would become tedious otherwise.

[Simplex]

I agree with the sentiments expressed so far. Undeniably of a certain kind of difficulty, baroque rather than Byzantine. Absence of a discernible theme is curious. I wonder if it was aimed at relative beginners? A Listener, but not as we know it.

[teuchter2]

I did get this finished yesterday. I got the coding business relatively early, but always struggle with reverse coding for some reason. I don't think I've worked out all of the 18 coded words, but it was not entirely necessary as long as I had the right amount of each for the encoded entries. I did quite enjoy it as I like the ones I can plod through and make steady progress.

[Anapice]

Tuesday evening and still on page one. There have been occasions when we have reached 100 posts so where is everyone? Too difficult?

[crosswhit99]

This site might assist with the code breaking :

http://25yearsofprogramming.com/fun/ciphers.htm