SignPuddle 2.0 coming this week

[Steve Slevinski]

Greetings SignWriting List,

We are finalizing the testing of SignPuddle 2.0.  We plan to go live 
with the update tomorrow. The conversion process will take around 2 
hours during which time SignPuddle online may not be available.

The major update involves searching.  The new searching does not use an 
archived index, but performs a live search on the data.  This searching 
is partially available now, but has been properly integrated in the 
SignPuddle 2.0 update.

The Symbol Frequency has been revamped to provide an accurate report 
that now includes sign text documents as well.

A new Search by Group page is available that provides searching in 
multiple steps.  It allows for searching within search results.

Searching spoken language has improved.  You can now search separately 
on Terms and Titles, Text, Source and Puddle Page.

Horizontal writing has returned for SignMail and ColumnMaker.  Once 
again, SignPuddle can create horizontal writing.  It uses the 2 lane 
design of the upper head lane and the general middle lane.

The other major changes are invisible to the general user as they 
concern the data rather than the user interface.

SignPuddle 2.0 is a faithful implementation of the Modern SignWriting 
specification.  It utilizes the latest SignWriting Image Server code. It 
is an important step forward in power, flexibility, and stability.

The Modern SignWriting specification is available on GitHub.
Project Page: https://github.com/Slevinski/msw
PDF Link: https://github.com/Slevinski/msw/raw/master/MSW.pdf

The SignWriting Image Server software is also available on GitHub.
Project page: https://github.com/Slevinski/swis

I have not completed the move of the ISWA 2010 font software to GitHub 
yet.  It is available online: http://www.signpuddle.net/iswa/

Previously, SignPuddle 1.6 implemented our preliminary Unicode design. 
Since then, the initial design and proposal is being re-worked, for a 
possible new submission later this year.  Although work continues on the 
Unicode design, there is no completed proposal at this time that can be 
implemented in software.  Therefore, it was necessary that SignPuddle 
2.0 remove Unicode from the SignWriting data.

SignPuddle 2.0 adds a new data format option for SignWriting that uses 
Unicode characters on plane 15 from the Private Use Area.  This format 
is intended for testing purposes only.  It is a stable pure character 
model, but not currently involved in the Unicode design process.

Regards,
-Steve