PROGRAMMERS: Typing SignWriting in Vertical Columns...

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
June 17, 2004

Dear SW List, and programmers...
SignWriting is written in vertical columns, when people become skilled
at SignWriting. This was requested by Deaf people who became very
skilled, and they found that the grammar of their signed languages
needs the vertical columns to show certain grammatical elements that do
not exist in any spoken languages...they wrote it vertically by hand in
the 1980s. At the time that the DAC requested vertical columns, we
already had SignWriter DOS. But the software was designed to type
horizontally from left to right. To re-design the whole program to type
down in vertical columns was such a huge job, and because Rich Gleaves
had to take a job at Qualcomm, and could no longer work on the
SignWriter project, Rich programmed a quick little program called
ColumnMaker before he left, that is an add-on to SignWriter DOS, that
takes the horizontal SGN files and places them into vertical columns,
with no typing on the part of the typist...just an automatic re-flow
into vertical columns...We call that "columnizing a SGN file"....Of
course, something was better than nothing...BUT...I knew at the time
that the re-flow into vertical columns was giving us incorrect
grammer...that we needed special programming for the vertical columns
to be correct...So I have never used ColumnMaker, even though we have
it free for download on the web, with its own little manual and
everything...

Why did I distribute it anyway? Because something is better than
nothing, and I knew by releasing it, it helps people think about these
issues, and helps people expore the idea...

Now I am writing to really explain all this, so that hopefully
programmers can program vertical columns properly so that all those
grammar elements can be captured...so I will post a series of messages
about this now...

First, to take a look at ColumnMaker, for history's sake, here is the
ColumnMaker Manual on the web:

SW44 ColumnMaker
http://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs1/sw0051-SWDOS-ColumnMaker.pdf

The actual software is downloaded for free, as a part of the SignWriter
DOS package for download on the web:

Downloads
http://www.SignWriting.org/downloads

Val ;-)