Re: Request For Status: Language vs. Cipher / Facsimile Edition

[reeds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jim Reeds)]

Welcome, Andreas!

Let me give very brief answers to your two questions, even
though they deserve long answers.

1.  Language vs. cipher.  The VMS text shows more patterning and
less randomness than languages or ciphers typically show.
Modern ciphers tend to show much less patterning and more randomness
than languages and the simplest letter substitution ciphers show
amounts as languages do.  So we suppose the VMS is written in
some special kind of language (a mad-man's, or formulaic, or
spelled out with a special orthography) to account for the
discrepancy.

2. Wish list & photo copies. We are currently negotiating with
Yale for a high-class digital scan. I'd like to not comment on
details & terms just yet, except to remark: (a) if these
negotiations are successful, I think your project will be
facilitated, and (b) I'd be grateful if you'd hold off approaching
Yale for a month or so, until after our negotiations have come to a
conclusion one way or the other.

Jim

-- 
Jim Reeds, AT&T Labs - Research
Shannon Laboratory, Room C229, Building 103
180 Park Avenue, Florham Park, NJ 07932-0971, USA

reeds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, phone: +1 973 360 8414, fax: +1 973 360 8178