Draw 3 dots vertically. Connect some adjacent pairs with vertical line segments (dashes). Of the remaining isolated dots, erase some of them. (Some may mean all or none.)
There are 13 possibilities. We use a comma to denote an isolated dot, a period to denote an erased isolated dot, and an underbar to denote a dash. We describe the character from bottom (the baseline) to top.
- ,,,
- ,,.
- ,.,
- ,..
- .,,
- .,.
- ..,
- ...
- _.
- _,
- ._
- ,_
- __
#8 is a completely blank character. Omitting this blank character leaving 12 seems attractive for expressing base-12 (duodecimal/dozenal). These characters are very narrow so can be packed densely.
There are 8 possibilities (1 2 3 4 9 10 12 13) if we require the baseline to be occupied (not an erased dot). These 8 seem attractive for octal. There are 5 possibilities (1 3 10 12 13) if we require the character be "full height", both the baseline and top line occupied.
Starting with only 2 vertical dots, the numbers of possibilities are 5/3/2. The 2, namely a colon and a vertical bar, seems attractive for binary.
Starting with only 1 vertical dot, the numbers of possibilities are 2/1/1.
Starting with 4 vertical dots, we need an additional character, e.g., hyphen, to denote an empty space between two dashes, e.g. ( _-_ ). The numbers of possibilities are 34/21/13 assuming I counted correctly.
- ,,,,=16+ _,,=3*4 __,=2*2 _-_ ___ 34
- 8+ _,, _., _,. _.. ,_, ,_. ,,_ ,._ __, __. ,__ _-_ ___ 21
- 4+ _,, _., ,_, ,,_ ,._ __, ,__ _-_ ___ 13
These counts are Fibonacci numbers, though not clear why.
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