Is Reviewing an Implementation On Topic?

Question

I am implementing a protocol and something's gone wrong. I've checked my code and I think it's fine; I believe I've misunderstood the protocol itself.

Would it be on topic to post my understanding of the protocol, and say, a list of steps that I took to implement it? I wouldn't want this to just be a textbook regurgitation of the protocol, but rather a description of what the code does, w.r.t. cryptography, to check that I've interpreted the paper correctly.

Should I go to Code Review first? I see this as a bit of a chicken and egg problem. I'd prefer to check that my understanding of the problem is sound first before having other poor souls dive into the code.

Answer 1

This sounds on-topic, though I'm not sure how it fits in the Stack Exchange format. Pose the question in a way which leaves more for an answer than a "Yes".

And yes, if you want someone to read your code, then Code Review SE seems to be the better site.

Answer 2

You would be on-topic to ask about the method you're thinking about, and as part of that you could include your code 'as' the pseudo-code [1] for discussion.

I don't think I'd close-vote a question of the following form:

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I am trying to understand The Protocol, based on The Resources. I would like to implement the algorithm, but am not quite sure I've correctly understood how it works. As I currently understand it,

The Protocol as Understood.

However, I am slightly unsure how The Issue works.