VMs: Re: VMS & XML...?

[Rene Zandbergen <r_zandbergen@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> More directly useful would be things like having a
> central tool repository 
> (for entropy functions, etc), plus a standard set of
> (say) Perl regexp 
> filters... and an agreed single transcription (for a
> given set of glyphs). 
> However, this last part is perhaps the most
> contentious... :-)

Some of this already exists. There may be quite
a few members of the list who have never experienced
the use of a piece of software called Bitrans.
One of the reasons I have never worried too much
about whether the most frequent word in the 
Voynich MS has 3 characters (as in "8AM") or 5
(as in "daiin") is that Bitrans will translate
between one and the other. The only shortcoming of
any transcription alphabet is when things which are
in reality different are mapped to the same 
character. All existing transcriptions will have
this to some extent.

> [...] to achieve some kind of reasonable modern
> consensus about the core 
> alphabet, as opposed to the core stroke-set (which
> EVA would seem - with 
> only a few minor differences of opinion - to fully
> embody).

See above. This may not be such a big problem 
after all.

Another useful tool is VTT, which is designed
specifically to work with files in the format
of the interlinear files. This tool, the locus
identifiers in the transcriptions, the way to
handle weirdoes and ligatures in Eva, all
make that the current transcription system
is indeed a system, and not just a file in 
one format or another.

> But within such a broadly collaborational exercise,
> alternate 
> transcriptions for each line can be built up within
> the underlying database 
> from the contributions of all participants. Votes
> for and against different 
> transcriptions could even be included. Just a
> thought. :-)

Yes, the format of the interlinear file is 
old-fashioned. And it could be face-lifted.
But it has always been platform-independent.
This is worth keeping, more than anything else
(as long as Mr.Gates doesn't really buy the VMs).

Cheers, Rene

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