typing program

Sun May 5 17:59:05 UTC 2013

SignWriting List
May 5, 2013

Hello everyone -
All your points are well taken and no arguments with anything - And thank you to Claudia and Italy for developing your own software - that is terrific!

And I LOVE your work, Claudia, and wish we could see you this summer….

Meanwhile I guess you may not realize that the PocketPuddle is available as desktop software called the PersonalPuddle, that can be downloaded and you can work WITHOUT the internet in your own private SignPuddle database…

Then, after you have created your own private Puddle files without any connection to the internet, later, you can connect to the internet and upload your files into SignPuddle Online. We have had that software for years now, and you can read about it here:

PersonalPuddle
http://www.suttonshop.com/ecommerce/pages/products_sw_detail.jsp?id=60.0

Now, I realize you probably do not have the money to purchase it…Because we also have the free SignPuddle Online I was hoping to help pay Steve a little, for all his hard work, and I am an unpaid volunteer to our non-profit organization, however, recently I started getting Disability payments, so I could donate your payment for the PersonalPuddle, Charles, to our non-profit, which can then help Steve, and I will donate the copy to you so you can work with the PersonalPuddle offline…

And if other people want a donated copy of the PersonalPuddle I will do my best to help you - Please write to tell me...

Meanwhile it helps the world if you can write online, because then we all benefit from your online databases…

Regarding keystrokes and software…you can still use SignWriter DOS if you want to…on modern computers…both Windows and Macintosh can use SignWriter DOS right now, using another program called DOSBox. If you prefer that, I can help you do that.

Also, Jonathan Duncan's SignWriterStudio software has keystrokes of a different kind - I like SignWriter Studio for Windows. It is Desktop software and also online…

And then there is the Italian software - so we really are blessed - and then DELEGS in Germany…we are so lucky!

Regarding SignPuddle, Steve is coming out with a new version in time that will have a new way of handling databases and will also have a typing program specifically for fingerspelling which is sorely needed - and it has a way to highlight SignWriting text, and copy and paste it elsewhere etc...

And why is Steve's encoding good? Because we will soon have a seamless way of writing Wikipedia articles that will move us onto the official Wikipedia site … it is all coming in around 6 months -

So much more to tell you - smile -

Meanwhile, bravo to all those who write by hand! That is the way SignWriting started - for ten years we did not have any computerization - everything was by hand - and proud of it!

I get frustrated when I hear people say that we can only do SignWriting by computer - they think we cannot write by hand - obviously that is not the case… smile…

Thanks to everyone for all you are doing -

Val ;-)

---------

On May 5, 2013, at 10:39 AM, Charles Butler <chazzer3332000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> Thank both you and Kim for underlining how strongly we need to go back before we go forward. When I was in Brazil in 2000 I was able to enter a sign with a typing program, save it to the dictionary and retrieve it later with a few keystrokes. There were pages on pages of keystrokes that the project put together to aid in entry and retrieval. I'm sure that there are plenty of people who preferred the system created for their own languages and interactive with others. Although the ASCII breakthrough is great, what does that mean practically. Will I be able to go back to "highlighting an English alphabet word", "changing that to fingerspelling" and "finding and replacing with a chosen sign" a given English phrase with ASL or LIBRAS or any other sign language? Right now, I see the "save the code into an interactive database". Well, what happens if that database is NOT on my computer, is only available on a netserver which on that day happens to be down and I'm teaching in a public school. 
> 
> That is a critical need, and it is very frustrating. We need a PocketPuddle that is retrievable as a database.
> 
>  
> Charles Butler
> chazzer3332000 at yahoo.com
> 240-764-5748
> Clear writing moves business forward.
> From: Claudia S. Bianchini <chiadu14 at GMAIL.COM>
> To: SW-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU 
> Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2013 1:35 PM
> Subject: Re: typing program
> 
> In Italy, Fabrizio Borgia (univ. "Sapienza" of Rome 1), one of my "favorites collaborators", is working on an OCR system for SW for his PhD Thesis. When he will finish we can handwrite SW, scan it and obtain a digital version unloadable in the puddle. With Fabrizio we also develop new software (called SWift) for typing SW, in my opinion is really faster than SignMaker. I have to ask him when our SWift will be available for everyone. But you can have an overview in the last chapter of my PhD thesis and in some of our articles (available here: http://www.csbianchini.com/index.php/liste-commentee-des-publications)
> Claudia
> 
> 
> 2013/5/5 Kimberley Shaw <skifoot at gmail.com>
> 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.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Claudia S. Bianchini, PhD
> A.T.E.R. Licence SDL-LSF @ Univ. Poitiers (France)
> chiadu14 at gmail.com
> 
> 

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