I'm curious to know from the Voynich community here:
What tools and resources do you all use in studying the Voynich Manuscript?
I'm talking in particular about analyzing the Voynichese script and illustrations (although hearing about tools and resources that are popular for other aspects like historical research would also be interesting.)
For example, do you use primarily spreadsheets like Excel, or do you use other software program. Or do you program software yourself and if so, in what programming languages?
I so wish i knew how to use Excel.
Mostly, i poorly code in Python to do stuff.
IVTT , by Rene is very handy.
Gephi , occasionally for visualising data ( when i feel like wrestling with a monster ).
Notepad++ , for edits, regexes and the like.
For messing about with the images, Paint.NET and GIMP but apart from a bit of cleaning up, i dont do much image work.
Web tools:
Voynich Manuscript Voyager by Jason Davies
voynichese<.>com
VIB - Voynich information browser
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(20-12-2023, 12:40 PM)bi3mw Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.VIB - Voynich information browser
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Yes -- I'd forgotten about VIB. It's a very nice app.
I've been using these:
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Java and Matlab for programming
Excel, yes
Shame on me, still haven't tried IVTT. If I'm not mistaken it's currently widely used.
Beside ivtt and bitrans, which I use intensively, I have created a large set of tools written in fortran.
While at work I used fortran-95, now I am back to fortran-77 which essentially means I am not doing S/W development, but good old hacking.
I use Excel only for tabular graphics, and most other graphics are again done using home-brewed fortran tools.
These read and write BMP files. While these files are bulky, the interface is completely straightforward.
I just recently started using mysql, but find it cumbersome, and what I though should be easy: fill a database with ready made CSV files, so far has been prohibitively complicated.
(I do remember from a cyber security course that mysql has a terrible reputation, and this seems to have been addressed by allowing no straightforward solution - but I am digressing).
(21-12-2023, 07:14 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I just recently started using mysql, but find it cumbersome, and what I though should be easy: fill a database with ready made CSV files, so far has been prohibitively complicated.
I too started using MySQL to maintain and manage the VMS transliteration data for analysis purposes, but very soon discarded the idea.
You are correct that, for this purpose, it (or any SQL database for that matter) is just cumbersome and unnecessary. In data processing terms, the VMS is.. well, tiny. The extra overhead of dealing with a persistent database just isn't warranted, since the entire manuscript and all its components can be easily held several times over in RAM on a laptop.
So reading in directly from an IVTT transliteration file and/or from CSV files is more than sufficient.
I do, however, use MySQL behind applications like The Voynich Garden and also for clipping and managing graphical elements from the Voynich hi-res images.
This was mainly necessary because the graphical editing work is so meticulous and time-consuming, that it is worth persisting each action to disk so that I can backtrack editing mistakes and not lose my work when I accidentally fat-thumb a deletion.
On a separate topic though, and pardon my rant:
I must disagree with the "terrible reputation" claims on MySQL. I've used it for several large-scale commercial and mission-critical implementations with great success. Any failures concerning security or reliability would result from its hosting and implementation infrastructure, and any other alternative database (e.g. Oracle) is equally vulnerable to that. The criticisms of it almost always come from those with a vested interest in its commercial competitors. I abandoned Oracle a long time ago, after spending almost 2 years listening to Oracle's account reps trying to explain and justify their outrageous calculations on how they were billing us for it. And subsequently confirmed that it just offered no significant features or advantages over open-source databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL.
Hehe, totes off-topic but time for an appropriate xkcd link.
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(21-12-2023, 08:19 PM)RobGea Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Hehe, totes off-topic but time for an appropriate xkcd link.
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Yes I was thinking of that one :-)
(21-12-2023, 08:19 PM)RobGea Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Hehe, totes off-topic but time for an appropriate xkcd link.
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I love computer jokes. A favorite is the title "Rm9sbG93ZXJz" of episode 7 of season 11 of The X-Files TV show. The episode is basically the machines versus Scully and Mulder and the dispute between them starts with Mulder getting bad service from a fully automated diner and he refused to tip for the service. The title is Base64 code for the word "followers". In the end, the machines leave Mulder no choice but than to finally give the minimum tip and the dispute ends with no one but a few machines hurt, though the machines do quip, "We learn from you." Periodically throughout the episode the Crosby Stills Nash & Young song
Teach Your Children is heard playing. Oh, and the tagline for the episode is "VGhlIFRydXRoIGlzIE91dCBUaGVyZQ==", which is Base64 for "The Truth Is Out There". While the episode was obviously railing against both the use of AI and human abuse of it (and a bit scary if you ask me), it was all very tongue-in-cheek too. I had to look up the Base64 references though.
I'm no good with programming languages and I had only heard of Base64 prior to this but that's still about all I know about it. I could say just about the same thing about most other programming languages, including everything everyone has mentioned here. My VM research so far has been mostly digging up sources and researching the plants and the historical aspects so I doubt I will ever get into the translation aspects (the rest of you seem to have that very well covered). But I am good with Excel and I use it every day, though not too often yet for VM research. Recently, I've had the opportunity, through VM research, to expand my familiarity with Google Sheets too. Don't be too shocked but I also do a lot with Microsoft Paint, including for VM research. I sometimes use Excel and Paint in tandem with Word and PowerPoint (there are just some things the first two can't do by themselves). But Google may be the tool I use the most with the VM and I have used Google Lens frequently with limited success. There are a lot of internet sites I use to aid my VM research as well, particularly Wikipedia, manuscript repositories and plant databases, but there are way too many to mention here (at least 50 so far). Not to mention the Folio Browser and Image Extractor here as well as the Jason Davies VM Voyager and I also cross-reference with the various VM and medieval blogs. (My system resources hate me.)
Does that count as an answer to the original question?
Speaking of Paint, I noticed most here work with the JPEG format and one person here mentioned BMP but I prefer the PNG format myself. It takes up more filespace than JPEG or GIF but a lot less then BMP or TIFF and is a better resolution than GIF and often better than JPEG, though not always.