[sw-l] challenge for programmers

[Sandy Fleming]

Steve Slevinski wrote:

> Hi Val,
>
> My 2 cents, SVG is the next step.  It is required for quality
> publishing of SignWriting documents with the IMWA.  However, if done
> right, it will be compatible with our current work so there is no
> hurry.  Unless someone else works on it first, I will get to it
> eventually.
>
If you would like to see some simple SignWriting done as SVG, I've
already done some. For example, my Easter card was done in SVG. It
certainly makes for some magnificent graphics!

Here's my Easter card in British Sign Language: http://bsltext.org/easter/happyeaster.svg

To view this, you need to download an SVG viewer such as the Adobe SVG viewer browser plugin. DO NOT try to use this with Firefox as there is a bug which will cause problems! Use it with Internet Explorer, NS or Mozilla for the moment.

To can download the Adobe SVG viewer plugin from http://www.adobe.com/svg/

There are some nice functions which give you a rough idea of what SVG can do:

If you hold down the alt key you can use the mouse to drag the picture around, if you hold down control or control-shift you can use the mouse to zoom in or out respectively. The SignWriting remains perfectly sharp no matter how large or small you make it :)

Of course if you know XML you can download my SVG file and play around with it until you break it! There ar some interesting features in the way I've programmed it. See how I build up a sign from component parts and then simply call up the sign by name to position it on the page. Look at the automatic shadowing on the arrows that cross over each other. And the fact that such things as colours can be controlled from a separate stylesheet.

Sandy