NO, that did not work..

Fri Dec 14 16:46:55 UTC 2007

Valerie and Steve,

  The need for customization exists because you refuse to set a standard that applies to all computers.  I thought that was the point of a system, one system fits all computers, not 'customize to your needs' even though the very next person may have to do it opposite.

  That doesn't work if you are sending text files, why should it have to apply to graphics? 

  If I send something to you in this text message, you don't have to change it to read it in black and white, to show to a third person who does not have your particular sight difficulties (as some may need to show WHITE letters on BLUE) the standard for all computers.  Why, other than, "customization" should I need to.  

  I then have to go an extra step, when everyone should be able to go to any of the dictionaries, lassoo a sign, with one step, not two, and copy it into their text files without having to paste it to a third application or customize it.  If the Brazilian sign puddle is set to opaque, the French puddle to transparent, the Chinese to some mix, the ASL with who knows what, this does not help in everyone working with ONE common system for showing overlapped signs, a white hand and a black hand, which is what you teach in your system as how to write the signs. 

  If you are teaching that in handwriting, upon which this system is based, that the hands are transparent, then I would buy your argument, but they aren't, you don't, and so the argument is specious, and your saying so doesn't make it so.  

  I can do your customization thing, yes, but my question again is WHY? when the very thing that you need for overlapping signs needs to be universal, not customized.  You teach in handwriting to show the hands overlapped with the back hand disappearing under the front one, yet you can't do it in a sign as STANDARD in your computer system. 

  I can do it, but I feel that it is wrong for customization and transparency to be the standard, when it messes up an essential feature of the system, which is transportability. 

  Can I LOCK the customization so that if I put it in the dictionary the sign is LOCKED as WHITE hands only, as that is how I have written it and want it interpreted.  If you allowed customization to allow for ME to be the authority on how that sign is to be stored, that's fine, but not if someone else can come right along and take out the very reason I put it in that way in the first place which is to show overlapping hands.  If I want it colored, or changed, or whatever, then how I STORE IT then should be lockable, just like a PDF. If I have stored it as WHITE, then you should not be able to change it to transparent.  If you want it a new way, then make the writer have to choose, in creating the sign to begin with, whether the hands are transparent or WHITE.  

  I thought I was storing WHITE and BLACK images in the Brazilian sign puddle, now I am told I am not, and that is very upsetting.  That's what it looks like to me, and only when I transport the signs to my OWN computer do I realize that everything that I thought was What you see is what you get is in fact "transparent".  The background is not clear, if it were it would not show "WHITE", it would show Microsoft BLUE or MAC GREEN, colorless has no color, clear is NOT a color.

  Very upsettingly yours,

  Charles Butler

  Charles

Valerie Sutton <dac at signwriting.org> wrote:
  SignWriting List
December 14, 2007

Thank you, Steve, for this excellent explanation...

I don't think we need any extra programming for this right now... the 
Customize feature seems to be working very well on both Windows XP 
and Macintosh.

Ron and Charles - Have you ever clicked on the Customize Button and 
customized the sign?

Try making a white background, like Steve suggests, in Customize...

Then be sure to click on the CENTER of the graphic to get the correct 
PULL-DOWN menu. If you click off the center of the graphic, you will 
get another Pull-Down menu that you don't want...

Val ;-)

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