VMs: VMS numbering systems hypotheses...

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

As promised, please find attached a short Word document containing my 
current hypotheses of how the VMS' primary numbering systems work.

I think that the main system can count up to 98 (or possibly a little 
higher), and is based around combinations of the gallows characters, the 
picnic tables, and the "e" character. In itself, it's not a new or novel 
system - rather, it's Roman numerals (but hidden in plain sight).

I've tried to explain my assumptions, observations, and inferences quite 
clearly in the document, but as this is still only really a very first 
draft, any suggestions for improvements will be very warmly received! 
:-)  Like most software guys, I very rarely get things *exactly* right 
first time. :-/

Please can I ask some of you to try this out yourselves, to see if it helps 
reveal any further structures or patterns in the text to you?

And even if this does all turn out to be true, I strongly suspect that this 
may only mark the beginning of our road to unravelling the VMS' secrets: 
for example,
(1) I don't believe that every instance of a gallows character indicates a 
number
(2) The first few characters on each page (& under some long gallows) still 
look anomalous
...and so on.

Fingers crossed! :-)

Thanks & best regards, .....Nick Pelling.....

Attachment: VMSNumbers-v001.doc
Description: MS-Word document