[sw-l] challenge for programmers

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
June 21, 2005

Everyone -
These are great discussions!

Tomas...regarding Unicode...
I feel that SWML...especially the SWML that is working in SignPuddle  
2.0, is quite wonderful....I hope Unicode happens someday, but as  
Stuart says, it has to wait for the IMWA to be finished. But the SWML  
that Steve Slevinski has developed, based on Antonio Carlos' original  
SWML and stretched to become more dynamic...makes SignWriting no  
longer just graphics, it becomes searchable sortable language...so  
Unicode is not the only way to make SignWriting become written  
symbols instead of pasted graphics...

Many thanks to SIL and Stuart Thiessen for taking on the Unicode  
project for us, because I could no longer do work on Unicode with  
Michael Everson as I did years ago...

If in my lifetime we can get the IMWA to write DanceWriting,  
SignWriting and Mime Writing in the dynamic way we have written it by  
hand for 30 years, then my job is done, and I will leave Unicode for  
future generations ;-)

There are so many excellent programs under development and I bet  
sooner or later Unicode will get done -

Val ;-)

------------------






On Jun 21, 2005, at 5:29 AM, Stuart Thiessen wrote:

Hi, Tomas!

That is something that my organization (Pass It On Services) is very  
interested in. With Valerie's approval, we have been working to build  
a team to do something in this area.  The key issues have been  
working out some of the technology questions and finding the funding  
to pay for people's time to design the font and work on the various  
other elements of a solution. Some experts in this kind of work like  
Michael Everson and the Summer Institute of Linguistics are very  
willing to help but we have the issue of finding funding to support  
the project.

I have also felt that we need to give the IMWA some time to settle.   
While Valerie's system is very flexible, Unicode is not as flexible  
if you want to keep the symbols in "sorting order".  If a new symbol  
is needed, it will be harder to insert it in the middle of an  
established Unicode ordering. Giving the IMWA time to settle and time  
for us to evaluate the system to see what else is needed is an  
important step in this process, I think.  In the meantime, I hope to  
see what we can do to work on the other aspects of it so that when it  
seems like we have a good basis for this, we can move forward on it.

If anyone on the list has any suggestions on where to find funding  
for this project, we would love to move forward on it.  We have a  
list of foundations here in Iowa that we are planning to contact but  
most of it is small grants.

Thanks,

Stuart

On Jun 21, 2005, at 2:49, Tomáš Klapka wrote:


>  IMVHO there is need of:
>  - standard (adding IMWA into the Unicode)
>  - fonts (vector fonts /TrueType/)
>  - input method (create system /windows,linux,.../ compatible input  
> methods)
>
>  What is the state of standardization of IMWA and process of  
> including IMWA into the Unicode?
>  I think it is the most important step.
>
>  And what about creating of TrueType fonts for IMWA? AFAIK it is  
> just pictures now, which is almost unable to use in standard  
> applications. TrueType is vector type and it is possible to change  
> size of the text without lost of rendering quality.
>
>  Is there any core team to work on these issues?
>
>  Tomas
>
>  Lucyna Dlugolecka wrote:Imagine the world in 2015. ;-)
>
>> SW is known by the Deaf in most countries of the world, they can  
>> write in their SLs, read books in SLs and even read news in SLs on  
>> the web. And can they use Google to search for SL words within SW  
>> pages? Ha! :-)
>> Programmers, now you see what the challenge for you is :-)
>>
>> Lucyna
>>
>>
>> GG 3618151 SMS +48505273292
>>


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