Sign Proccessing Software

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
June 13, 2004

Stuart Thiessen wrote:
> For me, I would like to see the ability to access the SignWriter
> dictionary via symbol.  For example, if I know a sign has a certain
> handshape, movement, contact, whatever, I can type those...


Dear SW List, Stephen, Sandy, Stuart, and everyone -
Just for your general information, even though they are not the
SignWriter Computer Program, there are other programs right now that
can search a dictionary by symbols...There are two that I know
of...SignBank Databases and the Belgian Online SignWriting
Dictionary...

SIGNBANK DATABASEs Search for Signs by Symbols in 6 different ways...
1. Any Sign With...
2. Exact SignSpellings
3. Symbol Combinations
4. Best-Guess SignSpellings
5. Sign Classes - Symbol Groups
6. Basic Symbol With Undefined Rotation

----

BELGIAN ONLINE DICTIONARY
Want to learn how to do it? I really enjoyed learning it...Go to this
web page:

http://plantijn.ruca.ua.ac.be/~aertsbraem/ASL/visueelzoeken.php

If you need a translation of the Flemish words, I will be happy to give
you my attempt at a translation! You can search for signs in the
dictionary by handshape and contact symbols.

----

and regarding SignWriter DOS...there is this side note:

SIGNWRITER DOS... FIND AND REPLACE COMMANDS
It is true that SignWriter DOS cannot search its dictionary for a sign
by symbol, but ironically, it can do a Find and Replace inside an
actual SignWriting document, searching for all signs that hold one
symbol, and then replacing it with another symbol in all the signs
found...This was the first attempt at programming such Find and Replace
routines in 1986. Rich Gleaves will be the first to tell you that it
was not perfect, and it is Antonio Carlos's paper at the Lisbon
workshop that seeks to improve that process...but it was a useful tool
at times, and I will be happy to teach you all how to do this in
SignWriter DOS...just ask me and I can teach it on the List..