iPhone App

Thu Mar 29 02:29:26 UTC 2012

SignWriting List
March 28, 2012

Hi Arthaey again -

On Mar 28, 2012, at 6:34 PM, Arthaey Angosii wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 6:19 PM, Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org> wrote:
>> Regarding a SignWriting app for the iPad… Yesterday for the first time, I
>> heard that a German programmer has developed or is developing a SignWriting
>> app for the iPad… Stefan Woehrmann told me about it in a Skype conversation.
>> I am excited to learn more about it myself …
> 
> Do let us know if you hear any more about this!

I will - Stefan - can you tell us more about the iPad app for SignWriting which was demonstrated to you recently? Perhaps you can ask the programmer or developer to get in touch with us? We are so curious…smile...

> 
>> Regarding SignWriting Shorthand, it is not handwriting, but a little like
>> Pitman or Gregg Shorthand in English - and was used in the 1980's to take
>> notes for Deaf signers in the classroom, writing the signing of the
>> interpreter at speed. And it worked for the students who took notes with the
>> Shorthand. However, SignWriting has changed since and the Shorthand needs to
>> be updated to match the way we write today and we have not done that yet…
> 
> I hadn't realized SignWriting had evolved so much — but that's a good
> thing! That means it's improving as folks use it, right? :)

Exactly!

SignWriting has vastly improved since 1974, and since the 1980's and so forth…every decade has brought important improvements that evolved naturally through usage - that is the important point - It is a flexible writing system that is alive and well -

Have you seen this new web site on the SignWriting Script? someone just showed it to me the other day -  I was so happy to see it:

Script Source: SignWriting
http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=script_detail&key=Sgnw

> I ask about shorthand and cursive because I'm concerned that print
> SignWriting is too cumbersome to use for writing notes in class. I
> wanted to see examples of people's personal shortcuts they've taken to
> make SignWriting look less like a bunch of diagrams and more like,
> well, writing. ;) But I am interested in forms of SignWriting that are
> complete enough to not need immediate re-transcription, the way true
> shorthands do.

Smile - first, no worries…SignWriting is flourishing written by hand as well as by computer. Some people write painstakingly beautifully by hand, the way people wrote English beautifully by hand back in the 1800s…and other people write fast and can read each other's writing just fine - but that is not shorthand - it is handwritten notes - shorthand is a different way of writing based on shortcuts and phonetic pieces of words like a court recorder, who gets training with special machines - so let's call it cursive or handwriting, but not shorthand -

It is true that we could use some "formal" textbooks teaching handwriting skills, but that will come in time -

> 
> Do you have any samples of letters, or notes, or what-have-you, that
> are good examples of quickly-written but still-legible(-to-the-author)
> SignWriting?

Sure - anyone want to show Arthaey some of their handwritten notes? smile

As far as good examples on the web -
http://www.signwriting.org/about/prepare/prep01.html

Darline was aghast when I posted this one, because she was just writing handwritten notes for herself and never expected it to become an example that it is possible to write by hand (smile)

and here is an article that goes on for more than 6 pages showing lots of handwriting…go from page to page to page...
http://www.signwriting.org/lessons/cursive/byhand1.html

> 
>> If you are thinking of texting on iPhones or iPads with SignWriting, I
>> believe there will be a day when SignWriting texting will occur - and that
>> just might become the new "Shorthand" - who knows?!!
> 
> In order for SignWriting to be supported for texting, it would have to
> be supported directly by Apple — which seems unlikely to happen. But
> it *would* be possible to create an iPhone app that was dedicated to
> SignWriting, which wouldn't need any official recognition by Apple
> apart from normal approval in the app store.

That would be great and would mean a big shift in people's awareness of SignWriting..

> 
>> So Arthaey - tell us - are you interested in developing a SignWriting app
>> for the iPhone?
> 
> I am a programmer by trade, but I haven't done any iOS programming
> before. Although I *am* interested in making an iPhone app, I would
> not do justice to a SignWriting app until I've learned both ASL and
> SignWriting better first. :)

That's true, but your interest and technical support will be welcome -

> 
> On the other hand, I do have a lot of professional web development
> experience and would consider making a smartphone-friendly version of
> the SignPuddle website. (The site does work on my iPhone's web
> browser, but it could definitely be a smoother, easier experience.)
> Would you be interested in that?

As you know, SignPuddle is designed and developed by Steve Slevinski, who is right now finishing up the development of a new version of SignPuddle…SignPuddle 2. We hope to be using SignPuddle 2 online in the next month or so…

Once SignPuddle 2 is working well, the next item on Steve's To-Do List is to work on this very issue - there are new web browsers out there now that do not all work the same and SignPuddle needs to become cross-platform with all the latest web browsers including Safari,  Google Chrome and RockMelt - 

So you need to ask Steve if you could be of help - If you could work together and it speeds up the process of course it would be a blessing for everyone - We are a non-profit and we do not have any funds to help you with this task - so I do not want to impose on you...

No matter what, thanks for the offer and for this interesting chat!

Val ;-)

Valerie Sutton
Sutton at SignWriting.org

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