The top left hand loop of the gallows characters is a 4. Who disagrees?

[-JKP-]

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You can take images of a bunch of q's and a bunch of 4's and line them up in order from more q - like to more 4 - like.
These images could come from a variety of sources or even be mathematically drawn.

You could mark the point where q's end and 4's begin.
For any given source you could count how many are more q like and how many are more 4 like.
Mark seems to think most are more 4 - like in the VMS.

My guess would be that intermediate forms would dominate.
Also, that cutoff point will be arbitrary.

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Don, I did suggest very early in the thread something along those lines by saying, "By all means come up with an algorithm that classifies them. As long as it's the software doing the work, there's no reason not to, and such an algorithm could be generalized to other letters."

But that suggestion got no response.