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Just a thought. Would it be possible to think not in terms of rules
and exceptions to those rules but in categories? For example, in
English there is a rule for how to spell words containing the
combination of the letters "i" and "e." It says: "i before e except
after c," yet there are so many exceptions to that rule that it becomes
almost useless. It becomes more like "i before e except in <i>
beige, cleidoic, codeine, conscience, deify, deity, deign,<br>
dreidel, eider, eight, either, feign, feint, feisty, foreign, forfeit,
freight, gleization, gneiss, greige, greisen, heifer, heigh-ho, height,
heinous, heir, heist, leitmotiv, neigh, neighbor, neither, peignoir,
prescient, rein, science, seiche, seidel, seine, seismic, seize, sheik,
society, sovereign, surfeit, teiid, veil, vein, weight, weir, weird."<br>
<br>
</i>What many rules do is to summarize in a way that aids
memorization. But computers don't care about that. A better way of
presenting words with combinations of "i" and "e" would be simply to
present one category of words with "ie" and another of words with "ei."<br>
<br>
Now, I'm not intimately familiar with all the SignWriting symbols so
I'm unable to make a parallel example, yet I can't help but wonder if
there is one?<br>
<br>
Bill<br>
<br>
<br>
Valerie Sutton wrote:
<blockquote cite="midE32D86AC-7579-42C5-9C5E-F899BFB5EFA8@mac.com"
type="cite">Hello Everyone...
<br>
<br>
Just a few other thoughts from me...I like your editor ideas too,
Sandy!
<br>
<br>
And Sandy...I am sorry I thought you wanted to program Movement
Writing...I misunderstood...
<br>
<br>
The IMWA means Movement Writing...to me that means DanceWriting and
Skateboard writing and Norwegian craftsmen swinging an axe!....
<br>
<br>
Let's work with the ISWA now...The International SignWriting
Alphabet....SignWriting does have a Movement-Writing form for phonetic
writing (which Kelly Jo eluded to yesterday regarding the enormous
detail of writing the differences in fist tensions from signer to
signer), and a more simplified form for Everyday Use....but there are
still fewer symbols than in the IMWA...which includes skateboarding
etc.
<br>
<br>
There are specific rules as to what is white in the symbols, and if I
handle the new ISWA folders for you properly, this will be at least
defined for you, when you create the SVG.
<br>
<br>
There is the complication that not all symbols need 96
rotations...there are 8 Categories of symbols and each one's rotations
are handled differently, if you are going to program those differences
to get rid of the number of symbols...that programming was developed by
Rich Gleaves for SignWriter DOS years ago as you know...so that we
could cut down on the number of symbols entered...he figured out all
the ways things could flop and rotate...for example...faces work
differently than hands etc...each Category has a different standard way
of using Fills and Rotations on the grid...
<br>
<br>
But even with that fancy programming, there were still some symbols
that did not fit those categories and still needed work...after 10
years of programming SignWriter DOS...
<br>
<br>
And even if those glitches were fixed, we still have another
problem...that some symbols look like each other, even though they are
technically a different rotation...like the plain square white
palm...looks the same in several different rotations...
<br>
<br>
But those different rotations are important for sorting dictionaries
properly, and so they must be there...
<br>
<br>
That problem was never solved either, in SignWriter DOS, because
although Rich programmed all the flops and rotations properly, the
typist could not see when they had chosen the wrong rotation because
the two rotations looked the same...
<br>
<br>
Oddly enough that is NOT a problem with reading or writing SignWriting
for the end user (the signer can read these fine because of other clues
in the written sign)...but in programming, it is a problem because we
need the correct ID number when sorting dictionaries by
Sign-Symbol-Sequence....if we have a SignSpelling Column, like we do in
both SignBank and SignPuddle, we can technically correct that problem
before sorting, which is excellent for now...and thank goodness for the
excellent SignSpelling features in SignPuddle 1.5!
<br>
<br>
Regarding the stick figure...
<br>
<br>
SignWriting only uses a full upper-body stick figure in its
phonetic-Movement-Writing form...or when writing gesture that is
related to signing but not a part of a formal signed language...
<br>
<br>
But for everyday writing of signed languages, we do not need very many
arm lines, and slowly those can become standardized in size...
<br>
<br>
I will be working with creating the ISWA with all symbols in one
folder, plus another folder with the symbols grouped by category, plus
all the ISWA symbols in SignBank 8.5 which can be printed in a database
to give you a notebook with every symbol to refer to....I hope to start
this work at the end of this month...
<br>
<br>
I think the ISWA is a wise change...I am tired of seeing Skateboards in
the SignWriting symbolset!
<br>
<br>
I am proud of our DanceWriting system, which can record full classical
ballets under a musical score...but just as the Roman Alphabet does not
record music, the SignWriting Alphabet does not need to include symbols
for writing dance!
<br>
<br>
Someday I hope to really have this enormous writing system for all
forms of human and animal and insect movement in a symbolset called the
IMWA...but not in 2007!
<br>
<br>
Have a wonderful Sunday everyone -
<br>
<br>
Val ;-)
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
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