Sandy in UK: Flexible computer programming

[Jonathan]

Sandy Fleming wrote:
> Val,
>
> Thanks for bringing this up.
>
> The difficult part is to figure out how to make it as easy as possible
> for the typist to input it via the keyboard and mouse. As you might have
> gathered, once a symbol was typed and on display at the prototype editor
> I wrote a couple of years ago, the user could then rotate it either way,
> add more or less fill (in handshapes), or move the symbol up, down, left
> and right. These would work in fairly coarse jumps, but then by holding
> down the shift key he could do all of those things more finely.
>   
Hi Sandy,
    I tried out your program some time ago and noticed that the rotation
and the fills are much more adjustable then what the IMWA allows for.  I
was wondering if you had thought about how you were planning to store
this "extra" information.  Are you going to use the same fill and
rotation numbers currently used in the IMWA and extend them by using
decimals or use another strategy all together?  Are you anticipating
that your program will be compatible with the SignPuddles even with
these extra features?
    The program I am working on is staying more conservative in using
strictly the IMWA.  I think that it will use the next version of the
ISWA once it is ready.  I was asking the above questions because I am
thinking about how my program could exchange information with other
SignWriting programs and thought that it would be insightful as to how
others plan on changing some of the technical details of computer
SignWriting for even better options and how this will impact sharing
documents between programs.

Jonthan

> The prototype didn't work with movements, but these principles can be
> applied to movements: we wouldn't need fill but we would need rotation
> (perhaps in three dimensions?) and positioning, and to these we would
> need to add resizing - making the movement bigger or smaller (and once
> again, the shift key could be held down for "fine resizing").
>
> But we'd need still more: with circular movements it's necessary to say
> where the movement begins and ends (with linear movements the position
> and size already tells us that). And then some movements such as zigzags
> have yet another number associated with them: just how many zigs and
> zags are required? Again, storage and display is easy, it's how to make
> the keyboarding and mousing simple that's the challenge. We'll just have
> to keep thinking about it!
>
> I started programming this week. Unfortunately I have a lot of (paid!)
> work on at the moment (more than usual) so progress will be a bit slow
> for a while. But I hope to be able to describe exactly what's happening
> sometime soon, probably on my website.
>
> Sandy
>
> On Sat, 2007-05-19 at 13:40 -0700, Valerie Sutton wrote:
>   
>> On May 17, 2007, at 10:10 AM, Sandy Fleming wrote:
>>     
>>> Now that I think about it, there is something I (and I'm sure other
>>> developers) could really use, and that's a collection of SignWritten
>>> signs - from any number of languages - that are particularly difficult
>>> to write clearly, that could be a challenge to present legibly on the
>>> page.
>>>       
>> Hello Sandy!
>> Here is an example from Sleeping Beauty in ASL...Sometimes we need  
>> Circle Symbols that are different sizes...although I can add more  
>> sizes to the ISWA, the truth is that there will always be another  
>> size not there...so if you can somehow develop flexible circle sizes  
>> that would be great!
>>
>> This is supposed to be one big circle:
>>
>> That is why I say that handwriting is better than dumb  
>> computers...because we are not limited by hand...but computers limit  
>> the symbolset that is normally flexible by hand...
>>
>> Thanks for your question!
>>
>> Val ;-)
>>     
>
>
>
>   

-- 

Jonathan & Yolaine Duncan
8-)  & ;-)

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