[sw-l] New Keyboard Demonstration Software

[Sandy Fleming]

Hi List!

As promised I've written a proof-of-concept for some of the things we were
discussing before Christmas.

It features a new kind of keyboard, compact ASCII file storage for
SignWriting, and symbols displayed independently of the IMWA or SSS.

Mainly I'd like opinions on the keyboard input method - whether you think
it's worth developing further (for contact, movement &c) or whether you have
problems with it. The whole point is getting quick access to the symbols of
the language by touch typing. Obviously it's the sort of thing that takes
practice to master, especially since there are many more handshapes in ASL
than there are keys on the keyboard! But any handshape can be typed with
only one or two keypresses.

Curretnly this only demonstrates handshapes, but I have keying methods for
everything else thought out as well - it's just a matter of finding out if
people on the list think I'm going in the right direction before writing
more of it.

You can find downloads, instructions and everything at:
http://bsltext.org/software/

Although this is presented on my BSL site the current language module is
derived from the SSS-US, so it's more suitable for typing ASL, really! More
language modules can easily be created, though.

I should also say that this is my first attempt at releasing software over
the Internet - so please be patient with me if you have problems running it
on your particular OS to start with.

Thanks for taking a look!

Sandy