new SignWriting software developments....

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 14, 2003

Dear SW List Members:
Sorry for my silence lately. Actually, behind the scenes, I have been
very very busy writing email messages to a list of SignWriting
programmers...who are fast and furiously creating new plans for new
SignWriting software! Pretty exciting, actually...but of course the
programs themselves will not be ready for users for awhile...

Software development has become my only focus now, since without good
"typewriters" or "sign-processors", and without good databases, it is
very hard for researchers and teachers around the world to use
SignWriting. As you know, thousands of people write SignWriting by hand
everyday...and there are more and more of them, whom I have never met,
since they learn it for free on the web...

But just as with spoken languages...writing by hand came first, and
then computer programs were developed later, to type those symbols...

In the case of SignWriting, the actual writing system is still under
development, while thousands use the writing system daily, so that
creating the software for an ever-evolving writing system that is
visual, and does not use the Roman Alphabet, has been a challenge...I
am praying that the sss-2004 will give us such a huge database of
symbols that all the issues of "not having a symbol you want on a
computer keyboard"...will start to go away, and we can focus more on
the spellings of signs in different countries...and creating large
dictionaries...that will be a blessing!

So I want to thank you all for your patience...I may not have as much
time to chat on the SignWriting List in the next couple of months
because I am working on finishing the sss-2004 with all those symbols
that have to be entered...but I am here, and of course go right ahead
and post questions to the List, and whenever I can, I will jump in....

Happy SignWriting everyone!

Val ;-)

Valerie Sutton
Sutton at SignWriting.org

1. SignWriting Site
http://www.SignWriting.org
Read & Write Sign Languages

2. SignBank Site
http://www.SignBank.org
Sign Language Dictionaries

3. SignWriting Shop
http://www.SuttonShop.com
Books, videos, CDs, software

4. Post to SignWriting List
SW-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA

5. SignWriting List Archives
http://www.SignWriting.org/forums/swlist

Deaf Action Committee for SignWriting
Center For Sutton Movement Writing
an educational nonprofit organization
Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA
tel: 858-456-0098....fax: 858-456-0020