Binary SignWriting and Unicode

Fri Nov 30 18:16:11 UTC 2007

Hi Val,

I am no longer using the term "symbol" for the SW alphabet.  I am using 
letter.  The term "character" is important when talking about Unicode.  
The term "letter" is important when talking about an alphabet.  Every 
PNG image that you have in the ISWA will be a character in Unicode.  I 
am also adding extra characters for programming and structure in Binary 
SW.  The ISWA based characters will either be letters when they have 
phonemic information, or they will be symbols for punctuation and 
non-alphabetic characters.  In theory, this should match the Unicode 
definitions.

There are certain characters in the ISWA that may be better in the 
programming or structure character section.  The location markers might 
be a good example.  These special markers will not be accessed on the 
standard letter palette for writing.  These characters will appear with 
other marker characters.

In theory, the token based processing of Binary SW could easily 
integrate with a keyboard. 

Due to it's light footpring and sequential token processing, Binary SW 
should stream very well.

Regards,
-Steve

> SignWriting List
> November 30, 2007
>
> Wow...this is amazing, Steve. Thank you for your hard work, and for  
> this message explaining it!
>
> 2008 will be an exciting year...
>
> I just have two Ethiopian handshapes to add, and then I will have the  
> handshapes for the ISWA ready...then I need to work on the arrows and  
> circles...people want choices of larger arrows and circles ;-)
>
> So the ISWA work is going well, so we can release it in 2008...
>
> Regarding terminology...I think we need to follow the Unicode  
> terminology...as you can see on this web page, the term "character"  
> is what Everson uses instead of the term "letter", and I am guessing,  
> but I believe their term "symbol" stands for symbols for punctuation  
> and other symbols needed to write with, but the symbols are not an  
> alphabetic character....
>
> Universal Character Set (UCS)
> International Standard ISO/IEC 10646-1 and computer industry  
> implementation Unicode
> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/software/unicode/unicod00.html
>
> And trying to follow that terminology will become complex for  
> SignWriting, because in other writing systems a character does not  
> flop and rotate...so I thought we could call our BaseSymbols (around  
> 500 basic symbols) "characters" or "letters" and the flops and  
> rotations could be called "symbols"....
>
> Just a thought...but it is not a big deal to me...just as long as we  
> are writing signed languages, the terminology in the hearing world is  
> not very important
>
> I am going back to working on the handshapes!
>
> Have a great day everyone -
>
> Val ;-)
>
> ----------
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 30, 2007, at 9:00 AM, Steve Slevinski wrote:
>
>> Hi list,
>>
>> There's been renewed interest in Unicode lately.  I think the main  
>> reason to use Unicode is to reduce size.
>> I have a proposal for Binary SignWriting that will integrate with  
>> Unicode.  The specifics may change, but the basic idea offers a lot  
>> of promise.  http://signpuddle.net/index.php?id=Binary%20SignWriting
>> This will be an open standard that will work with SignText and  
>> replace the other markups and formats.
>> As an example, consider the following section from "The Cat in the  
>> Hat" by Cherie Wren.
>> http://www.signbank.org/SignPuddle1.5/canvas.php?ui=1&sgn=5&sid=130
>> This has 164 letters (or symbols) from the SignWriting alphabet;  has 
>> 28 words (or signs) and is displayed using 7 image columns.
>> Here's the size breakdown:
>> Image Columns: 23 k
>> SWML: 10k
>> Binary SW: 0.64k
>> This is a tremendous saving.  Binary SW has a nice hex  
>> representation and it can be used in files, online, and databases.   
>> Binary SW integrates well with either font files or the current  
>> image files.  It's compatible with Unicode and the current  
>> SignText.  It can use style sheets for presentation.
>> There will be several types of SignText plugins: client (FireFox  
>> plugin), server (PHP and Ajax), and application (python, visual  
>> basic, ...).  All will use Binary SW with the new ISWA.  I'll be  
>> releasing the plugins as open source under the GPL on  
>> SourceForge.net.  If you want to participate in the coding, send me  
>> an email discussing your interest.  2008 is going to be a fun year.
>> The specifications will be appearing on my site http:// 
>> www.signpuddle.net as open standards and proposals.  I'd welcome  any 
>> comments, feedback or alternative ideas.
>> Regards,
>> -Steve
>>
>>
>>
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>
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