[sw-l] Frustrations of SignWriter DOS users...

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 14, 2004

Stefan Woehrmann wrote:
> ....it should be possible to create a program that would work almost
> like
> the GOOD OLD SIGNWRITER 4.4  but would run with Windows XP
>
> A dream would come true. If we could use your excellent configured
> keyboard - like in SW 4.4 but  there would be no limitation for the
> dictionary.
>
> All my hopes for the last past months to overcome this almost 10.000
> entry
> limitation of the SW-Dos dictionary are dying. It seems to be too
> complicated!!
>
> I love the program because I am in need to type long, long documents -
> (I am
> really curious if anybody in the world would be able to write a
> document
> with this new series of SW - programmes that are coming up...)  and
> what
> about printing paper-documents??.....



Dear SW List members, Stefan, Stephen and programmers:
Thank you, Stefan, for the above message. It means a lot, because you
are one of the world's most skilled SignWriter DOS users, and you have
used SignWriter DOS to type volumes of SignWriting documents... I
think, if programmers can see the frustrations that SignWriter DOS
users feel, then perhaps we can solve some of the problems in the
future...

Stefan has used SignWriter DOS diligently for years, and has a
dictionary in SignWriter DOS (.dic and .din) that is 10,000 signs...and
actually the dictionary would be bigger, except the old SignWriter DOS
program cannot hold more than 10,000 signs in one dictionary file...a
big frustration for Stefan's students! So they have multiple dictionary
files...Dicitonary files need to be as large as needed...but the old
SignWriter DOS software was not built for today's computers...

SignWriter DOS is important for a very different reason, which is not
being solved with the current new developments, as far as I can
see...at least not yet....so I am writing to ask this question to
programmers:

Will there be a day, when Stefan will be able to type full documents
directly in the visual symbols of SignWriting, like we do in SignWriter
DOS? We can type directly without ever seeing one word or letter in a
spoken language...pure SignWriting documents that can go for pages and
pages...that kind of typing, in a sign-processor program, that can also
save signs into a dictionary and paste signs from the dictionary while
typing...and then be able to print both documents and dictionaries in
multiple print formats...those features have never been done in another
computer program...SignBank gives us some of that, but does not have
the typing element...

Stephen's new Movement Writer program is a possibility. Perhaps it
could work in conjunction with SignBank, to give us all we need?...Will
it be able to create a 50-page SignWriting document that can be printed
on A4 or US letter-ize paper? grin...

And then there is SignWriter Tiger, which is a new version of
SignWriter Java, being developed by Daniel Noelpp in Switzerland, but
the project is not ready yet...

Thanks for your great message, Stefan, and do not worry - we are all
working very hard trying to solve these problems. More people would be
using SignWriter DOS right now, if Bill Gates had not developed Windows
2000, NT and XP...but we can't help that...time marches on and we have
to march with it!

Val ;-)