typing program

[Kimberley Shaw]

You said it, Charles!
That's why so many of my SW texts exist in handwritten -- but not yet
"typeset" -- drafts.
Best,
Kim from Boston

On 5/5/13, Charles Butler <chazzer3332000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Having been a part of the SignWriting community for more than 30 years, i am
> somewhat concerned that the usefulness of a typing program has been lost.
>
> When computers were first introduced to signwriting, I went to New York City
> for a demonstration of program on the AppleIIe which worked almost
> magically.
>
>
> I could start with an English sentence, with a highlight of a mouse change
> that sentence to ASL fingerspelling, and then go through and word by word
> replace English words with ASL signs and then begin moving them around to
> show the changes into ASL grammar.
>
>
> I can't do that now. Entry into the SW puddle is slow, painstaking, and is
> not given to the speed of typing which is going to be needed if SW is ever
> going to be an everyday writing system on a computer.
>
>
> What ever happened to the approach of typing, not moving a mouse, to
> retrieve a handshape, rotate it, add facial expressions, and think like a
> signer not digging through a mouse-retrieval system to a shape buried under
> 5 layers of clicking?
>
>
> With the change to your new coding system, that becomes even less
> transparent. It may be great for programmers but for the layperson it has
> become frustrating and trying to demo a program in a public school system is
> not one I would want to do now.
>
>
> SignWriting as handwriting is still very useful, but even with my dictionary
> program, I can't just "retrieve" an entry. A relational database would have
> to be tied to every piece of writing, and that gets very cumbersome. What
> happens if the net goes down, there goes the writing.
>
>
> Charles Butler
> chazzer3332000 at yahoo.com
> 240-764-5748
> Clear writing moves business forward.