SVG version of our IMWA symbols

Wed Apr 25 17:07:08 UTC 2007

Jonathan,

I am the one requesting an SVG

Jonathan wrote:
>
>
> Valerie Sutton wrote:
>> SignWriting List
>> April 21, 2007
>>
>> This morning I had the pleasure of speaking for almost 2 hours on the 
>> phone with the Netherlands, with one of the Wikimedia languages 
>> subcommittee members, whom I met, through email conversations 
>> recently, and we talked about creating an SVG version of our IMWA 
>> symbols, to enhance future computer programming...
> Hi Val,
>     An SVG version of the IMWA symbols seems exciting.  I was 
> wondering we advantages this might have.  I know that currently the 
> PNG symbols are cacheable so this is better for us that have lower 
> bandwidth as we only have to get each symbol once. I briefly looked 
> into the SVG and it seems to be inline so it comes as part of the web 
> page.  I don't think that it would be cacheable but I could be wrong. 
> If the SVG is part of the page, then the browser wouldn't have to get 
> each symbol one by one, it would load faster on the browser but the 
> server would have to resend the symbol on each web page refresh so it 
> might be a bit longer to load each page for those of us with lower 
> bandwith.  Though on second thought, if we don't have to get each 
> rotation it might even be faster.
>     I was thinking on the savings are far as rotations  for only the 
> handshapes using the SVG.  Presently there are about 207 hand shapes 
> with 6 distinct fills rotated 8 different positions then mirrored and 
> rotated another 8 positions.  So for each of the 207 there are 6 fills 
> X 16 rotations = 96 symbols per hand shape.  207 handshapes X 96 
> symbols each =  19872 handshape symbols.  Now if we only had to draw 
> the 6 fills for the 207 handshapes, we would only have to define 207 X 
> 6 =  1242 symbols which SVG could easily mirror and rotate all the 
> ways we wanted to.  So with SVG we would only need to define 6% of the 
> current handshape symbols.  That's like 94% improvement. Not bad!!! 
> Some of the other arrows etc can also be rotated and flipped to make 
> up the full set. However there wouldn't be any savings as far as the 
> face symbols or some of the punctuation is concerned. 
>     I guess when we have made a few, we will have a better idea how 
> they compare in size to the PNG symbols.  I wonder if they would be 
> any smaller as many symbols have a lot of parts that have to be 
> described.  The median PNG symbol file size is only 232 bytes.  It 
> going to be hard to beat that but with a 90-94% savings from rotating 
> them on the SVG I guess it would really be worth it.
>     I the other more immediate benefit would be that they are easily 
> scalable.  This would be better for captioning or people who have bad 
> eyesight. 
> What else have your learned about doing the IMWA in SVG?
> Jonathan
>
>> I am going to step out in the beautiful Springtime air and be back 
>> shortly -
>>
>> Val ;-)
>>
>> -----------
>>
>>
>> On Apr 21, 2007, at 11:29 AM, Cherie Wren wrote:
>>
>>> I volunteer to help...
>>>
>>> cherie
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----
>>> From: Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org>
>>> To: List SignWriting <sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu>
>>> Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 8:41:27 PM
>>> Subject: [sw-l] Wikipedia American Sign Language
>>>
>>> SignWriting List
>>> April 20, 2007
>>>
>>> Hello SW List Members!
>>>
>>> As you all know, recently there has been interest in creating a
>>> possible ASL Wikipedia, or at least, the beginning of writing an
>>> Encyclopedia in ASL...
>>>
>>> Since we are new to writing and posting documents on the web, in our
>>> SignPuddle 1.5 Literature Puddle online, I realize that this is a
>>> very big leap forward, to start writing encyclopedia articles in ASL!
>>>
>>> To write such an article, we would need to either choose an article
>>> already written in another encyclopedia, and then translate it from
>>> English to ASL and then write it in SignWriting in SignText...
>>>
>>> or...
>>>
>>> write it directly from our own knowledge of physics, or geography or
>>> whatever the article is about!
>>>
>>> This seems like a big new project, doesn't it?
>>>
>>> Sooo...here is my thought...
>>>
>>> Do we have volunteers to help us write one test-article for a new
>>> encyclopedia written in ASL?
>>>
>>> It will be our FIRST article for an encyclopedia in ASL...like a test
>>> drive. Then we can show the document to those at Wikimedia and to
>>> others too...It will be an historic and interesting adventure...
>>>
>>> I know many of you are already overloaded with projects, so only
>>> volunteer if you feel you have the time. We could create an
>>> Encylopedia team of writers, and each person could take a small
>>> section of the translation and writing...
>>>
>>> And there is no rush and no deadline.
>>>
>>> Plus we need to choose the one article we want to write...
>>>
>>> But before we choose the article, is there anyone interested in
>>> volunteering to write an article for an Encyclopedia?
>>>
>>> Once we have a few volunteers, I will write to the Wikimedia language
>>> committee to suggest that maybe they can choose one article for us to
>>> translate from the Wikipedia in English online...
>>>
>>> Those are my thoughts...
>>>
>>> What are yours?
>>>
>>> Val ;-)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
>>> Check out new cars at Yahoo! Autos.
>>
>>
>>
>
> -- 
>
> Jonathan & Yolaine Duncan
> 8-)  & ;-)
>
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