[Blog Post] Peter Bakker on the VMS

[Koen G]

That's a very clear summary, Marco, and I certainly agree. It's a bit like playing whack-a-mole, isn't it. You find a way to solve one problem, only to see that another problem has now gotten worse.

The labels are one thing I would not get too hung up on. We don't know if they are supposed to be nouns labelling the thing they are with. They also seem to have different properties than the main text, although I must admit I never understood the degree to which this is the case.

I see only one way they could get away with really short labels, and that is if the name of the labelled thing is known from the text (where it is written in full) or from general culture. For example, in Byzantine mosaics it was sufficient to label Mary "Mother of God" with 2x2 letters, effectively halving the amount of letters required. Example: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

The effect is similar, I guess, to an abjad that is then expanded by verbose cipher, in the sense that you don't write certain things, and then expand what is left in a systematic way. This sounds overly complex, though I guess with the right rules it would not become a one-way cipher, if your text is one that can be reconstructed from the "abjad phase".