[sw-l] New Version of Keyboarding Software

[Sandy Fleming]

Hi Bill, thanks for the comments.

> The relational figure in the background provides a very useful tool.  I
> liked the way the Enter key jumped to the next keyin position (or
> whatever you call it).

I call it a "channel" since it matches the terminology of "multichannel"
signs.

> I tested the arrow keys for moving the active symbol and found something
> a little buggy.  When I press the Tab key while there is an active

I originally wanted the Tab key to move to the next syllable but had to use
Control-Enter instead because a Tab keypress does something extra that I
don't understand. I'll have to post to a user group to find out what the
secret of the Tab key is!

> I also noticed that when I press CTRL-Enter, I can enter a second set of
> hands and that pressing CTRL-Enter after that switches between the two
> sets.  Interesting feature.

Yes, this is actually explained in the first Tutorial:

"This keypress switches between syllables. The syllable you are typing is in
black, while the syllables you're not typing are greyed. At the moment only
two syllables are available, but in future you will be able to type as many
as you want."

It's a way of letting you type more than one set of handshapes while still
letting you see which set you're currently typing.

> When selecting a keyin position after a symbol had been placed there, I
> found it hard to know when that keyin position was selected again if the
> symbol completely covered the keyin position.  Perhaps the keyin
> position backgrounds could be slightly over-sized to help with this.  Or
> even that the symbol linked to this position (once you have entered
> them) could be given a color, such as red.  This would be useful as just
> selecting the keyin position does not select what's on that position, it
> selects the symbol that started there for that CTRL-Enter selection set.

OK, in the next version I'll program this in - I think maybe a thin red
outline around the current symbol to show that it currently has the focus
would be a good idea, not too distracting and it won't obscure other
symbols. In fact this is an excellent solution to something I've been
wondering how best to do - once I start programming in contacts and
movements it'll be necessary to show what the current channel is as well as
what the current symbol being moved is, since I want the user to be ablle to
move symbols independently and yet move all the movement symbols with the
handshape when he moves that. So your suggestion certainly seems to be a
good way of dealing with that!

Thanks very much again!

Sandy