Deconstructing the VMS : A positionless ledger (part 1)

[Dunsel]

Out of curiosity, why do you call it a ledger?
I am not an English native speaker but a ledger is an accounting book and this doesn't deal with accounting.

Wouldn't "word generator" or "word template table" be a better name?

Interesting question.  I am old enough that I have used accounting ledgers myself, many years ago. I just started thinking of it as a ledger because it has the rows and columns a ledger or spreadsheet would have and was just easy for my brain to remember that one word.  Technically it's not in itself a generator as it can create substantially more words that the Voynich has. And because there is no 'rule' as to when to end a word (scribal preference is my best guess) it could in theory generate an infinitely long word.  As a template table, I suppose that would work but just too many syllables for my small brain.

The simplest way to think of it is as a Voynich word verifier.  You create what you think is a Voynich word and it can tell you if that word could exist.  Not does, but could.

Another way to look at it is as a transition verifier.  You can take any letter in the left column and then see if there is a midfix or suffix that matches it.  If so, then that transition exists in the Voynich.

In order to be used in a generator or a template I'd have to include letter counts (weighting), which I do have.  In that form, it could be used to create a generator and I'm still working on that.

Now, if you want the explicit details, I store it as a JSON which has no bearing whatsoever on what a 15th century scribe would use.

So for me, the easy, dumb ass word was simply... a ledger.  And, when you look at how I think it was used, it was a row/column lookup, just like you would in an accounting ledger.