Val, Macs, PCs, Brazil, Symbol Editing and SWML...

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
June 27, 2003

Ha! Jerry wanted me to respond of course to his Mac comment (smile
;-)...There are many Mac people on the SignWriting List, so if I am not
available to help, then Daniel Noelpp, or Dan Parvaz are two that have
Macintoshes, as does Penny and Anne-Claude in Switzerland...Judging
from my personal email, I would guess that about 30 percent of our List
members are on Macintoshes...there are some on Linux too...

In the past, Mac and Windows programmers lived in different computer
worlds...they were like different religions - smile...people were "one
or the other" with no flexibility in-between...

But in recent years that is changing...There are several reasons why...
Most big programs are now available on both Mac and Windows platforms,
which brings us closer together...so every format that Jerry mentioned
below is also available on a Macintosh.

For example, Cecilia Flood sent me her documents from a PC in Microsoft
Word. My Mac was able to open MicroSoft Word documents from the PC with
no problem. So I made the PDFs for Cecilia, and then sent them to Jerry
on a PC...so we went from PC to Mac to PC with no problem...

Mac OS X is Unix, as you know, so Mac has blended with the Unix world
quite a bit...

Jerry, I believe you told me once that you like FileMaker...and that is
a Mac program interface that was transferred to the PC...so I suspect
you would enjoy tinkering with a Mac too...

I also like Windows - I use it everyday on Virtual PC. I have three
versions of Virtual PC....PC DOS, Windows 98 and Windows XP Home
version...Windows XP is the closest to Mac OS X...at least it feels
that way to me...

I have to get back to Symbol Editing...I must finish over the weekend,
adding new symbols, so I can hand Antonio Carlos a new CD of symbols on
Monday when he arrives - I am so excited to have visitors from Brazil!!
On Tuesday we are having a meeting of programmers here in my home. The
meeting will focus on SWML, and how it can be used to bridge between
SignWriter and SignBank...

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and thanks once again, Jerry and
Tini, for your new web site...

Val ;-)

--------------------------


On Friday, June 27, 2003, at 02:46 PM, Jerry Spillman wrote:

> Dear List,
>
> Tini and I and the ASL SignWriting Teachers Thank you all for your
> compliments on our From Children To Children site.  We are only too
> pleased to be able to display these projects from the small folk and
> their teachers.  We could be even more pleased if we were able to post
> some poetry and children's stories from the European Community, the
> countries of the Middle East, Africa, South America, Asia,  the  South
> Pacific and Pacific Islands,  United Kingdom, Russia, Scandinavia,
> China, India, Pakistan, Ukraine, Japan, the Philippines, and many
> others
> there isn't even space to name them all.  Teachers, you may e-mail
> requests to me for any details as to file formats, etc.  We have made
> web pages from .sgn, .pdf, MSWord.doc, MSExcel.xls, .tif, .jpg, gif,
> ..ps, .wpd, and many other file types, so don't let the format worry
> you!
> If you are a MAC freak, Valerie knows how to fix that, even. (Sorry,
> Val, I couldn't resist!) If I can't understand your requests, we have
> many, many friends on this list who can translate many different
> languages, so this is not a barrier, either.  We will not edit your
> student's or your content, except to perhaps make a picture more
> viewable or as you request...  Keep them coming!
>
> Jerry Spillman
> Webmaster, Cyberjer.com
> mailto:jzs at xmission.com
>