Aanother statistical take on Voynichese

[JoeyB]

For a Markov of order 3 the Author would need a table with ~20x20 = 400 entries listing the alternatives for the next character given the previous 2, each with its probability.  

I thought order 3 is based on three previous entries? 20x20x20?

Correct, the code line in his repo You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (the --order default is at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., the ^^^ padding at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.)):


41:  for (let i = order; i < s.length; i++) {
42:      const ctx = s.slice(i - order, i)   // context = the `order` chars before position i
43:      const ch = s[i]!

With order = 3, s.slice(i - 3, i) is the 3 characters immediately before the one being predicted. So the context is the previous 3 characters, which is 20×20×20…

Then these lines in the same file:
generate.ts:18 sets the default: const order = ... ?? 3.
generate.ts:37 const PAD = "^".repeat(order) pads each word with three ^, so the first prediction already has a 3‑char context.
The generator then has: generate.ts:60 let ctx = (PAD + seed).slice(-order) and generate.ts:65 ctx = (ctx + ch).slice(-order) both keep the last 3 characters as state.