[sw-l] International keyboards in operating systems

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
August 12, 2004

Stephen Slevinski wrote:
> ---Umlauts---
> I do not think internationally.  So I've never used non-ascii
> characters
> with Sign Puddle.
>
> It can be possible to use special German characters with Sign Puddle.
> http://signbank.org/signpuddle/SGN-WO/dict/sl/test%e4.png
>
> However, special encoding and decoding will be required before it will
> work
> properly.  I'm not sure how much work this will require.  I'll keep
> looking
> into it and let you know.


Stephen, Stefan and Everyone!
In the old days, this issue was even more complicated, because back in
the 1980's, operating systems did not have any built-in international
keyboards. But today, there are already Keyboard switches that people
can do in their operating systems. I know some international people who
switch between three or four keyboard layouts daily, while typing
email...and these built-in keyboards come with Mac OS X, and of course
almost all of Windows versions, I am sure...

In mac OS X, go under System Preferences, and then International, and
then Input Methods. In Windows, change country keyboards under System
Properties? Is that right? And inside web browsers, you can also change
languages...go under Properties or Preferences in your web browsers.

I actually wonder if you cannot hook into those built-in features,
Stephen, because the umlauts are actually already
programmable...essentially they are text - just the International
extension for the ASCII set of characters...I worked with the
international set to develop the 10 keyboards in SignWriter DOS...

Please see the attached diagram...This shows the built-in choices for
keyboard layouts from different countries in Mac OS X...I switch to
Denmark whenever I am typing an email in Danish, because they have
special symbols too... no umlauts, but double a that has a circle over
it etc...



-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Keyboards.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 20474 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/sw-l/attachments/20040812/b19404e1/attachment.gif>
-------------- next part --------------