Task: Straddling checkerboard
VB: 

Function encrypt(ByVal originalText, ByVal alphabet, blank1, blank2)
  Const notEscape = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ."
  Dim i, j, curChar, escChar, outText
  Dim cipher  
  Set cipher = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
  
  alphabet = UCase(alphabet) : j = 0
  For i = 1 To 28
    curChar = Mid(alphabet, i, 1)
    Select Case True
      Case i>= 1 And i<= 8
        If j = blank1 Or j = blank2 Then j = j + 1  
		cipher.Add curChar, CStr(j)
        j = j + 1
      Case i>= 9 And i<=18
		cipher.Add curChar, CStr(blank1) & CStr(i -  9)
      Case i>=19 And i<=28
		cipher.Add curChar, CStr(blank2) & CStr(i - 19)
    End Select 
    If InStr(notEscape, curChar) = 0 Then
      escChar = curChar
      
    End If
  Next 
  For i = 0 To 9: cipher.Add CStr(i), cipher(escChar) & CStr(i): Next 
  
  originalText = UCase(originalText)
  For i = 1 To Len(originalText)
    outText = outText & cipher(Mid(originalText, i, 1))
  Next 
  encrypt=outText
End Function 
 
Function decrypt(ByVal cipherText, ByVal alphabet, blank1, blank2)
  Const notEscape = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ."
  Dim i, j, curChar, escCipher, outText
  Dim cipher  
  Set cipher = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
  
  alphabet = UCase(alphabet) : j = 0
  For i = 1 To 28
    curChar = Mid(alphabet, i, 1)
    Select Case True
      Case i>= 1 And i<= 8
        If j = blank1 Or j = blank2 Then j = j + 1  
		cipher.Add CStr(j),curChar
        j = j + 1
      Case i>= 9 And i<=18
        cipher.Add CStr(blank1) & CStr(i -  9), curChar
      Case i>=19 And i<=28
        cipher.Add CStr(blank2) & CStr(i - 19), curChar
    End Select 
    If InStr(notEscape, curChar) = 0 Then
      
      arrayKeys=cipher.keys
      escCipher = arrayKeys(cipher.count-1)
      
    End If
  Next 
  For i = 0 To 9: cipher.Add escCipher & CStr(i), CStr(i): Next 
  
  i = 1
  Do While i <= Len(cipherText)
    curChar = Mid(cipherText, i, 1)
    If curChar = CStr(blank1) Or curChar = CStr(blank2) Then
      curChar = Mid(cipherText, i, 2)
      If curChar = escCipher Then curChar = Mid(cipherText, i, 3)
    End If 
    outText = outText & cipher(curChar)
    i = i + Len(curChar)
  Loop 
  decrypt=outText
End Function 
 
  message = "One night-it was on the twentieth of March, 1888-I was returning"
  cipher = "HOLMESRTABCDFGIJKNPQUVWXYZ./"
  
  
  
  
  Buffer=Buffer & "Original: " & message & vbCrlf 
  encoded = encrypt(message, cipher, 3, 7)
  Buffer=Buffer &  "encoded: " & encoded & vbCrlf
  decoded = decrypt(encoded, cipher, 3, 7)
  Buffer=Buffer &  "decoded: " & decoded & vbCrlf
  Wscript.Echo Buffer

PHP: $key2val = ["A"=>"30", "B"=>"31", "C"=>"32", "D"=>"33", "E"=>"5", "F"=>"34", "G"=>"35",
        "H"=>"0", "I"=>"36", "J"=>"37", "K"=>"38", "L"=>"2", "M"=>"4", "."=>"78", "N"=>"39",
        "/"=>"79", "O"=>"1", "0"=>"790", "P"=>"70", "1"=>"791", "Q"=>"71", "2"=>"792",
        "R"=>"8", "3"=>"793", "S"=>"6", "4"=>"794", "T"=>"9", "5"=>"795", "U"=>"72",
        "6"=>"796", "V"=>"73", "7"=>"797", "W"=>"74", "8"=>"798", "X"=>"75", "9"=>"799",
        "Y"=>"76", "Z"=>"77"];
        
$val2key = array_flip($key2val);

function encode(string $s) : string  {
    global $key2val;
     
    $callback = function($c) use ($key2val) { return $key2val[$c] ?? ''; };

    return implode(array_map($callback, str_split(strtoupper($s))));
}
    
function decode(string $s) : string {
     global $val2key;

     $callback = function($c) use ($val2key) { return $val2key[$c] ?? ''; };
     
     preg_match_all('/79.|7.|3.|./', $s, $m);
     
     return implode(array_map($callback, $m[0]));
}   

function main($s) {
    $encoded = encode($s);
    echo $encoded;
    echo "\n";
    echo decode($encoded);    
}

main('One night-it was on the twentieth of March, 1888-I was returning');