I was reading through the report on the 2003 guild tour of France,
In it, there is some mention of the layout methods and something caught my attention,
At one point, one of the carpenters speaks of a half-scribe system where the joints are laid out in standardized spacing,like square rule, while only the lengths of the timbers are scribed thus eliminating the need for housings.
Then mention was made of the 'german system' used in the alsace region. It wasn't detailed exactly what was meant by this,

I am familiar with a half scribe method, and am somewhat confused by the french scribe system. I am accustomed to a system where the timbers are carefully cut and planed to exacting dimensions and the joints laid out according to reference lines. -The mortises can all be cut off of these reference lines, without any need for scribing timber irregularities. So cutting mortises works just like cutting them in square rule.
Only the timber lengths are laid out with a scribe system -after mortises are cut into the timbers, they are laid out in an assembly and their lengths marked according to any slight bow that may exist in the adjoining timber. This requires only a single reference mark on the tenon end of the timber, very fast and easy.
The result of this is very perfect joints with no housings. This requires you to start out with very near perfect timbers, though. But in German, Swiss, and Austrian carpentry that is normal. Today with precision milling and planing, that's no trouble at all. The goosewing axe was developed for the purpose of creating such exacting timbers. German and Central European hewing techniques are focused on precision.

I have often wondered when looking at these, could this German style of frame layout be the REAL origin of square rule in the United States? Could US square rule be simply a logical advancement of the German method, or an means of applying the German technique to English framing systems? Is it a coincidence that square rule appears in English-style American framing a short time after the mass immigration of German-speaking people to the colonies? The German system has been around so long in some regions, we really have no knowledge of any other method they might have used beforehand.

I like this method, it's simple and I understand it. full scribe to me is burdensome and tedious. This is quick and easy, and effectively eliminates the most troublesome and time consuming aspects of both methods.

That said, square and scribe rule as Americans know them are excellent when faced with very irregular timbers. The German system can't deal with that without the addition of extra steps. The first step of the German system is to make the timber very regular.