# HG changeset patch
# User Laman
# Date 2019-05-29 11:37:14
# Node ID ccb4a27318f11862f19168d857c9f2163ebf5a94
# Parent  b52e197db5a8ae1e1368fd1b4509e9c26ed73952

added readme

diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/readme.md
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# Shamira #
+
+Implements Shamir's secret sharing algorithm. Splits a string or a byte sequence byte-per-byte into n<255 shares, with any k of them sufficient for reconstruction of the original input.
+
+Outputs the shares as hexadecimal, Base32 or Base64 encoded strings.
+
+Can be used on its own from the command line by invoking shamira.py or as a library by importing shamira.py.
diff --git a/src/shamira.py b/src/shamira.py
--- a/src/shamira.py
+++ b/src/shamira.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ class MalformedShare(SException): pass
 def _shareByte(secretB,k,n):
 	if not k<=n<255:
 		raise InvalidParams("Failed k<=n<255, k={0}, n={1}".format(k,n))
+	# we might be concerned with zero coefficients degenerating our polynomial, but there's no reason - we still need k shares to determine it is the case
 	coefs=[int(secretB)]+[int(b) for b in os.urandom(k-1)]
 	points=[gf256.evaluate(coefs,i) for i in range(1,n+1)]
 	return points