SW (DOS) digital dictionary and beyond, in several fronts worlwide (Brazil included)

Thu Jul 17 21:58:31 UTC 2003

Dear Valerie,
Thank you for your kind message.
I understand perfectly what you say, thank you.
I was referring not only to paper dictionaries but also to digital (CD) dictionaries.
We (my graduate students and I at the University of Sao Paulo) have used your good old SignWriter Computer Program (DOS) to create a dictionary .DIC file with 5,000 Libras signs, the same signs that were published in our trilingual Libras dictionary. And we are still very fond of that good old digital dictionary, indeed.
There are two reasons for the fact that we have not distributed the .DIC file. The first one is the contract with the public university press, which prevents us from doing so. It is a legitimate concern of theirs. They have invested a high sum of money in printing the dictionary, and thus they are entitled to have some return of that
investment in order to publish further books. The second reason is that I have always felt that digital dictionaries should bring not only SW and glosses, but also concept definitions, descriptions, grammar classifications, sign illustrations, sign sublexical composition, etc. (I have always feared that the simple pairing SW-gloss, destituted
from all the rich context of information, might discourage beginners, as it did discourage me.) And, as a matter of fact, thank God, after all these years of hard and silent work we have finally managed to do so: we have finished, and are almost ready to release, a digital version of the dictionary in two CD-ROMs (one with an alphabetical
interface and the other with a graphic interface). Using a mouse and a series of pop-up cheremic menus the deaf can locate any Libras sign from the 5,000 sign bank simply by selecting some of allochers that comprise their sublexical structure. Our hard investment of time and effort in this project shows just how deep is our faith in the
paramount importance of digital dictionaries. (By the way, as it happened with our paper dictionary, our digital dictionary will also have the authorship rights donated to research and development to the benefit of deaf children.). All that explains why I broke the silent work and took the liberty to stress the fact that there are some quite
dedicated Brazilians who are, indeed, extremely fond of the digital dictionary, even in its good old DOS version. (We will always be grateful to the SignWriter Computer Program, which has helped us to add SW to the paper dictionary).
With respect to the 19 volume paper encyclopedia, I am glad to inform that it is almost ready. I am concluding 11 chapters (300 pages each) describing the instruments we have developed and the data resulting from them on reading, spelling and sign language development by 2,000 6-45 year old Brazilian deaf students. As soon as they are
finished, the encyclopedia will eb released. That sort of cognitive and language mapping will serve us as a baseline, which will make possible to ascertain precisely the future impacts of the introduction of teaching technologies, based on our encyclopedia, on our sign retrieval software, and, should God grant us this opportunity, on
everyone ±±  beloved SignWriting, the masterpiece of your life, Valerie. We are almost there. The initial findings with SW seem very promissing. But the real impact on linguistic and metalinguistic skills remain to be ascertained in precisely controlled experiments, and all the new instruments will help with that.
We are very glad with the important work of Antonio Carlos and his crew in Pelotas, and we are certain that sooner or later, all the different progresses will converge. His SW-Edit that permits creating SignWriting dictionaries inside computers with his new SWML format is a great achievement, and may contribute to SW in a very important way.
Everybody working in parallel in Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Pelotas, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and other important Brazilian cities, will keep on preparing a brighter future to deaf kids with the help of SW.
Best regards,
Fernando

>
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Date:    Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:32:31 -0300
> > From:    Antonio Carlos da Rocha Costa <rocha at ATLAS.UCPEL.TCHE.BR>
> > Subject: Re: Dan's SWML suggestion about pasting sign sentences from
> >          dictionaries
> >
> > Angus, Dan, Valerie,...
> >
> >   Just to remark that in Brazil we have never been keen to the
> > dictionary. Everybody is always retyping signs as they are needed.
> > Almost no one has developed dictionaries for storing in the SignWriter
> > program.
> >
> >   As well as few people are actually printing from SignWriter. Everybody
> > do screen captures, rearrange the signs in some graphical editor
> > (usually MS Paint) and then either print the document
> > or else use MS Word to build larger documents, and then print from
> > it.
> >
> >   All the best,
> >
> >   Antonio Carlos
> >
> >
> >
> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Wed, 16 Jul 2003 13:49:52 -0700
> From:    Valerie Sutton <sutton at SIGNWRITING.ORG>
> Subject: Re: dictionaries are vitally important
>
> SignWriting List
> July 16, 2003
>
> Dear SW List Members, and Fernando!
> How wonderful to hear from you again, Fernando...I think of you sooo=20
> often. Your beautiful Encylopedic Dictionary volumes are sitting on my=20=
>
> table and both Antonio Carlos and I enjoyed referring to your=20
> dictionary from time to time...Thank you for that excellent volume,=20
> that is sooo impressive that no one could ever imagine doing anything=20
> to compare!
>
> I believe you have had a misunderstanding...When Antonio Carlos=20
> recently mentioned that they did not type with the SignWriter Computer=20=
>
> Program's dictionary feature...he was not referring to your printed=20
> volume - but instead to a specific file format in the computer called=20
> ..DIC and .DIN, that is only read in the SignWriter Computer Program=20
> format...so that had nothing to do at all with your work...
>
> So sorry you had that misunderstanding!! As you know, computer=20
> programming with SignWriter is a specialized situation, and it is true=20=
>
> that I have never seen SignWriter .DIN and .DIC dictionary file from=20
> Brazil...do you have one, Fernando?
>
> Val ;-)
>
> >> ------------------------------
> >>
> >> Date:    Fri, 11 Jul 2003 11:08:12 -0700
> >> From:    Valerie Sutton <sutton at SIGNWRITING.ORG>
> >> Subject: Brazilian typing and dictionaries...
> >>
> >> SignWriting List
> >> July 11, 2003
> >>
> >> On Friday, July 11, 2003, at 10:32 AM, Antonio Carlos da Rocha Costa
> >> wrote:
> >>> Just to remark that in Brazil we have never been keen to the
> >>> dictionary. Everybody is always retyping signs as they are needed.
> >>> Almost no one has developed dictionaries for storing in the=20
> >>> SignWriter
> >>> program.
> >>
> >> Ha! So in Brazil they type SignWriting, but you are also developing
> >> SW-Edit, which does not type...
> >>
> >> This just shows how it depends on what you have been handed...
> >>
> >> American users, can paste from a dictionary only because they were
> >> handed a dictionary of 3,100 signs inside SignWriter. We were =
> spoiled!
> >>
> >> But Brazil was not handed a dictionary...You were handed SignWriter
> >> with an empty Brazilian dictionary file, waiting for you to fill it
> >> with signs...same with all other countries...In Germany, they now =
> have
> >> a 9,000-sign dictionary in SignWriter. But in Brazil you have chosen
> >> not to use dictionaries...But if you had been handed SignWriter with
> >> 3000 Brazilian signs already typed for you, do you think people would
> >> be pasting sentences in Brazil from entries in the dictionary?
> >>
> >> ....smile...
> >>
> >> Val ;-)
> >>
>
>
> That is wonderful news, Fernando! So you are receiving positive results
> from Deaf students, who use your Encyclopedic Dictionary? Wonderful!
> You have really helped the world...Thank you for believing in
> SignWriting enough to place it in your Encyclopedia!...and your
> students are writing SignWriting by hand? Great news...
>
> I understand the issues of not having computers...There are plenty of
> people who do not use computers, so we have people here in the USA,
> too, who also write SignWriting by hand and I am glad they do...that
> was the way I started too...
>
> Interestingly enough, Antonio Carlos came to visit me because he has
> developed a way to create SignWriting dictionaries inside computers
> with his new SWML format...so we were actually talking about
> dictionaries in SignWriting the whole time he was here! His new
> computer program called SW-Edit, creates SignWriting dictionaries in
> SWML, which can then bring SignWriting symbols into other computer
> programs quickly, with less hassle than we have with our old DOS
> program...So I am not surprised that he and his team does not use our
> old DOS format for dictionaries...They are developing their own
> computer programs for that...
>
> Val ;-)
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Wed, 16 Jul 2003 14:24:27 -0700
> From:    Valerie Sutton <sutton at SIGNWRITING.ORG>
> Subject: Re: dictionaries are vitally important
>
> SignWriting List
> July 16, 2003
>
> On Wednesday, July 16, 2003, at 02:02 PM, Fernando Capovilla wrote:
> > It is our experience that Brazilian deaf kids do love the SW
> > dictionary. Unfortunately, the 1,200 exemplars donated to schools are
> > still too few and remain locked in the closet most of the time simply
> > because they are so rare (an unfair ratio: 1 thousand dictionaries / 2
> > million deaf). Regards, Fernando Capovilla
>
> What a remarkable story, Fernando! The fact that you were able to
> donate 1,200 copies of two very large Encyclopedic Dictionaries to
> schools in Brazil is remarkable...By the way, how are the 20 or so
> smaller dictionary manuals coming? I think that is a great project,
> because it brings the dictionary down to a more "everyday" level...
>
> I just looked at what Antonio Carlos said specifically about the
> SignWriter Computer Program below. It seems accurate, because so far I
> have never had anyone send me a Brazilian dictionary file inside
> SignWriter, in the .DIC and .DIN formats...if anyone does have a
> Brazilian .dic and .din...I would love to see it and share it with
> other SignWriter users -
>
> Many blessings to you, Fernando, and please send my best wishes to your
> dictionary team!
>
> Val ;-)
>