[sw-l] New Version of Keyboarding Software

[Sandy Fleming]

Hi List,

The new version of the SWposter demonstration software I promised is now
available online at http://bsltext.org/software/

The main improvment is the 36-key keyboard. There is an option on the menu
to allow you to choose between keyboards, and the 36-key one is the default.
In fact the 36-key keyboard is so much easier to learn that I was thinking
of ditching the 26-key version right away. However, if you want to try both,
they are both there.

Tutorial 1 consists of a brief introduction using the 26-key keyboard,
Tutorial 2 gives a comprehensive course on finding the handshape you want on
the 36-key keyboard. This has been possible for the 36-key keyboard because
I was able to find a much more logical structure, given the extra freedom of
the larger keyboard. If you did Tutorial 1 last week you'll probably want to
go straight to Tutorial 2 now.

The only posssible problem I can see with the 36-key keyboard is that
typists might object to having to type so much in the top row of keys. What
do you think?

I also added a "Standard Colours" feature, but since only handshapes are
available so far, that's not terribly exciting  :)

As I said, this is just demonstration software so that everyone can have a
say in keyboard design before I take it further.

If you don't want to download the software at the present time you can still
give feedback by reading through Tutorial 2 and seeing what you think of the
method: http://bsltext.org/software/tutorial2.asp

Thanks for looking at it!

Sandy