RE: Evolution - was VMs: Inks and retouching

[Nick Pelling <nickpelling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi John,

At 09:33 03/08/2004 +0200, John Grove wrote:
> >       Thanks for the character counts. You reminded me of the one
> > 'major' problem I have with a natural language solution: lack of
> > double letters or double syllables. They are far too rare in
> > the VMS.

Probably the majority of Quattrocento ciphers had cipher tokens for common 
double letter pairs (see Petr Kazil's scan of the Tranchedino cipher 
ledger, for example). With its (apparently) small base alphabet, 
semi-exotic letter-shapes and general absence of doubled letters (ii and ee 
aside), it seemed clear to me from the start that the VMs somehow could 
only be understood in terms of that particular cipher culture. I suspect 
that its resemblance to an unknowable natural language is merely a mark of 
the cipher-maker's genius.:-)

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


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