[sw-l] IMWA & Language-Specific Symbolsets

[Steve Slevinski]

Hi Val,

10 years to complete the IMWA?  Sounds great.  I'll hold you to that.
(smile)  Then we can take a few years to test the completed IMWA.  What
a fun time to be alive.

Once we have the first Langauge-Specific Symbolsets, I will modify
SignMaker so it can use either the entire IMWA or the language subset.
I could probably modify the Symbol Frequency page to automatically
create a langauge specific symbolset.  This may be a useful starting
point.  Once we have stable language subsets, we can use these subsets
for defining IMWA language specific keyboard layouts for SignWriter type
applications.

-Steve

Valerie Sutton wrote:

> SignWriting List
> June 22, 2005
>
>> Steve Slevinski wrote:
>> If we keep using the SSS ID numbers to identify the symbols, we'll
>> never have to close the IMWA.  While that idea may make Val groan,
>> the flexibility it offers is worth it.
>
>
> Hello Steve, Tomas and Everyone!
> Just the opposite...I applaud the flexibility and need it and request
> it, at least for the next decade. If writing full dance, sports, mime
> and general gesture are to be programmed in the IMWA, as Stuart feels
> is a good idea, then I must have the time to enter all those large
> amounts of amazing details. So I need the flexibility.
>
> I know this can cause problems for those who want complete stability.
> There is one way to have BOTH worlds at the same time. Keep the
> general IMWA flexible and open for me to add more symbols..... but
> create language-specific symbolsets from the IMWA, for those signed
> languages that have been written for a long time. Those
> language-specific symbolsets would become rock solid and never change,
> even though new symbols are added into the IMWA monthly...they woudl
> remain stable.
>
> That is stability for specific SignWriting of Sign Languages, coupled
> with flexibility for the generic Movement Writing.
>
> That was my idea behind this web page:
>
> Language-Specific SymbolSets
> http://www.movementwriting.org/symbolbank/symbolbank.html
>
> The original SSS-US was my first attempt at this concept. I believe
> that that SSS-US could be improved now, by using a Symbol-Frequency
> test to find the specific symbols needed and then the revised SSS-US
> could become our first test-language-specific symbolset...
>
> By the way, the SSS means the Sequence of Sign-Symbols within the
> confine of one criteria (symbolset)...so the SSS-US is the sequence of
> Sign-Symbols used in sgn-US (American Sign Language).
>
> So I hope this helps you all see my personal vision on all this...That
> is why I suggested before, that once the SSS-US is finalized, we could
> start Unicode just for the SSS-US first, and that at least would give
> the world some Unicode for SignWriting, even though it is not the
> entire IMWA in Unicode...
>
> Val ;-)