[sw-l] SignWriter DOS Tech Support

Sat Dec 4 16:14:30 UTC 2004

SignWriting List
December 4, 2004

Hello List, and Stuart and Brenda -
Thank you for this message...You make excellent points. In Brenda's
case, I would suggest that if Brenda can contact Pastor Ron Dettloff,
at the Deaf Church in Michigan, when Brenda moves close to that area in
January...perhaps Brenda can go to the Deaf Church to learn how to type
with SignWriter DOS?... They are skilled using the program and it might
help Brenda to get started...

Meanwhile, regarding running directly in DOS versus from Windows - I
agree. Running directly from DOS is much better...In fact, on the Mac
in Virtual PC, I use a version of Virtual PC that does not have windows
at all...it only has DOS...and it is much faster and cleaner...

Even when working directly in DOS, there is an old and rarely found bug
having to do with some keyboards. If a person touches the wrong key in
those rare cases, the whole program freezes whether you are in DOS or
Windows...but I am going to guess that Brenda may not have that
problem...I bet it is just a matter of practice and instruction and I
hope the Deaf Church can help to show Brenda the program...smile...

And yes...I love the typing element in SignWriter DOS and SignWriter
Java! I prefer to type too. And yes, I agree that creating a program
that has it all would be best...a way to drag and drop, and a way to
type directly as we have in SignWriter DOS...Stephen Slevinski has been
thinking that through, and started working on a program called
MovementWriter...but that is not ready yet...I hope we can develop more
programs that type directly in SignWriting symbols...

Talking of SignWriter DOS and Java, I am now going back to the
transcription of the ASL poem ONE HARBOR...Which I will do in those
programs...and Stefan has already done his in SignWriter DOS...

See next message...

Val ;-)

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

On Dec 2, 2004, at 8:16 AM, Stuart Thiessen wrote:

> Well, I have noticed in Windows 98, that sometimes the use of DOS
> within Windows sometimes doesn't work very well.  Usually, it is a
> sign of some kind of internal problem.  I haven't had a chance to sit
> down and figure out the problem.
>
> You should be able to go to START | SHUTDOWN and then select restart
> in MS-DOS mode.  It should not freeze then for sure if everything is
> installed correctly. At least it does on my computer.  So, Brenda, I
> suggest that you try it this way. It really won't make much difference
> in how you export files to Windows. When you exit SW-DOS, then type
> Exit at the DOS prompt and you will go right back to Windows 98.
>
> So far, I find SW-DOS to be the best of all the options for any kind
> of sustained text input.  While SW-Edit has a wonderful interface, the
> point and click interface takes too long for me compared to the typing
> approach in SW-DOS.  I hope that we will eventually have the option of
> point-and-click and keyboarding depending on our personal style or
> even our mood.  Right now, I tend to use SW-DOS and SW-Java as a team.
>  I enter data in SW-DOS and then save the file. Then open it again
> with SW-JAVA and capture the screen output.  If I use SW-EDIT, I just
> use it alone.  For my presentations on SW when I am using standard
> signs, I tend to use SignPuddle to grab example signs and then use
> SW-Java to create symbol examples (like all the palm orientations for
> a specific handshape, etc.)
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Stuart
>
> On Dec 1, 2004, at 11:00, Valerie Sutton wrote:
>
>> SignWriting List
>> December 1, 2004
>>
>> Stuart Thiessen wrote:
>>> I have 2 windows 98 computers: a tower and a laptop. The Laptop will
>>> handle it fine, but my tower hasn't handled it well in the last few
>>> months ... but it did before. I suspect that something messed up in
>>> the internals somewhere.  have you tried to restart the computer but
>>> go to DOS mode?  Then you should be able to run SW within the DOS
>>> mode.  Then just say "EXIT" or turn the computer on/off to go back
>>> to Windows.
>>
>> Thanks for this message, Stuart...That is strange that all of a
>> sudden a computer cannot use something...Perhaps you should
>> re-download SignWriter DOS?
>>
>> SignWriter DOS
>> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/software/sw44/download/
>>
>> Plus...Brenda...here is document help:
>>
>> SignWriter DOS Instruction Documents
>> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/software/sw44/sw44less/index.html
>>
>> Val ;-)
>>
>>
>> Valerie Sutton
>> Sutton at SignWriting.org
>>
>> 1. SignWritingSite
>> http://www.SignWriting.org
>> Read & Write Sign Languages
>>
>> 2. SignBankSite
>> http://www.SignBank.org
>> Sign Language Dictionaries
>>
>
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