Re: VMs: "Running code" -- I hope not...

["Larry Roux" <LRoux@xxxxxxx>]

You are sort of correct.  Zero (both in character and concept) was around long before the VMS, but it was not in common mathematical use until the 1600s.

But it could be inferred as in: "if the start character of the word is "o" then use the table below.  If the start character of the word is "d" then get the next character.  If "s" then the second character following.."   Use of zero without actually using zero.






******************************
Larry Roux
Syracuse University
lroux@xxxxxxx
*******************************

>>> mmg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 02/23/04 01:22PM >>>
At 21:22 22/02/2004 +0100, Elmar Vogt wrote:
>This afternoon I fiddled around a little with the idea of a "running code".
>
>Essentially, I modelled a slightly alterated Alberti code wheel -- To 
>encode text, you've got a pointer on the rotable inner disk, which you put 
>beneath the current letter. Then you write down the character of the inner 
>disk beneath the next letter from your source text, and subsequently move 
>the pointer to this position, etc.
>
>The results are funny. [...] whatever underlying structure you had is 
>completely erased. (Not to mention making things even more difficult by 
>employing a scrambled, rather than a sorted alphabet on the Alberti wheel.)

Well, if each character codes the "alphabetic distance" between two 
characters IN THE PLAIN TEXT (rather than between the last coded character 
and the next plain character to code), some structure would remain; for 
instance, once coded, _rosa rosae rosae rosam_, etc... would remain 
ostensibly a paradigm, as the 2nd, 3rd 4th letters of each word would 
remain the same (if you "restart" at each word, even the first letter would 
be the same).

Wouldn't this match better the Vms. content?

On a different plan, I would expect repetitions of the same character to be 
rendered in some special way (or even ignored) as, for any (non-forgery) 
date which has been postulated for the Vms, 0 was not reckoned as a valid 
number.

         Maurizio



  Maurizio M. Gavioli -  VistaMare  Software
  via San Bernardo 5, I-16030 Pieve Ligure, ITALY
  http://www.vistamaresoft.com/ 

______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying:
unsubscribe vms-list

______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying:
unsubscribe vms-list