Re: VMs: Arguments against a code book?

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Elmar,

At 21:19 12/07/2004 +0200, Elmar Vogt wrogt:
> Of course it is possible to conceive a scheme where Voynichese words are 
> interpreted as Roman-like numerals, which would in turn be used as indices 
> in a codebook, but this isn't really necessary.
>
> After all, you can create words "at will" from the Voynichese alphabet, 
> and use them as tokens to designate cleartext words. (Provided you devise 
> some kind of order, you can even sort your word lists for faster 
> reference. ;-) That would eliminate the intermediate step of interpreting 
> them as numbers.
>
> Just a note to avoid potential confusion between the codebook- and Roman 
> numerals-hypotheses.

The idea of a codebook is very nice, but falls down when you try to 
operationalise it to test it out. Let's face it, if we can't work out what 
constitutes a single letter, there will always be multiple ways of 
converting a word to a number - Roman numbers are merely one of many such 
possible. How do you count in Chinese? :-9

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 


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