ASL Wikipedia general update, and a new SignWriting input method

Mon Sep 1 19:58:44 UTC 2014

The facial expressions are all in the Head section, second from the edge on
the bottom row. As a general rule, if you keep clicking on the key for the
symbol that's closest to the symbol you want, you'll get there. (At least,
that's the intention.)

I'm reading through the SW DOS documents now, thank you for the links. I
can't find any of the "Stick figure combos" mentioned there in the
SignBank, though. Are those symbols no longer used?

Re Fingerspelling mappings: Yes, those would be very useful. Are they
available in FSW format? I'm probably still a few weeks away from having
the fingerspelling mode working, but having the layout already ready would
be very helpful.

Re CSSJanus: On ordinary Wikimedia sites, pages are formatted for
horizontal writing, by default left-to-right. For right-to-left languages,
like Hebrew and Arabic, a tool called CSSJanus goes through all the
formatting code and adjusts it for right-to-left display. For sign
languages, we need CSSJanus to also be able to reformat things for
top-to-bottom writing. The implementation of CSSJanus used by Mediawiki is
written in PHP.

(The only reason the vertical writing on the Incubator is working is
because I went through the most visible bits of CSS that show up on content
pages manually rotated them all. Since the code is modified quite
regularly, and the whole codebase is enormous, rotating them manually
wouldn't really work on a large scale.)

On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 12:44 PM, Valerie Sutton <signwriting at mac.com> wrote:

> SignWriting List
> September 1, 2014
>
> Steve and Yair -
> This is absolutely beautiful work and really groundbreaking - Thank you!
>
> And thank you for pointing out to us, that inside Chrome and Safari, it
> opens really tiny, but computers have ways of enlarging the screen…as Steve
> mentions below…and if you learn those keystrokes for enlarging your screen
> view, you can enlarge the SignWriting articles in the Wikipedia to read
> them well…
>
> And the fact that the Wikipedia is written in the good-quality symbols of
> SVG is very important - it looks great -
>
> And I love the fact that you can select signs and phrases and even create
> links in SignWriting…and even usernames can be in SignWriting now…
>
> And thank you Steve for giving us this tour of the Wikipedia:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCOWJ_-XQBg#t=3025
>
> So now, we need to discuss more what volunteers can do to help...
>
> Yair mentioned this:
>
> On Vertical Writing support in Mediawiki, which is necessary for the sign
> language Wikipedias: A Mediawiki architecture meeting was held regarding
> Vertical Writing support about six weeks ago, and Brion Vibber from the
> Wikimedia Foundation agreed to provisionally look into extending CSSJanus
> so that it can rotate the CSS appropriately for vertically-oriented pages.
> If you're good with PHP, please consider volunteering to help out with the
> CSSJanus work.
>
>
>
> Can you explain more about what is needed?
>
> Val ;-)
>
> ----------
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 1, 2014, at 5:22 AM, Stephen E Slevinski Jr <slevin at SIGNPUDDLE.NET>
> wrote:
>
>  Hi Yair Rand and List,
>
> The ASL Wikipedia main page looks amazing in Chrome.  It uses the Vertical
> Writing Mode to display the content.  For Vertical Writing Mode, the page
> scrolls to the right, rather than down.
>
> The sign text is written in vertical columns.  Each column ends at the
> bottom of the visible page and a new column appears to the right.  Text
> that does not fit in one column will flow into the next.
>
> If you resize the browser window on the ASL Wikipedia main page, you can
> watch the text reflow between the columns.  When resizing the window,
> notice that punctuation never starts a column.  Very nice touch Yair Rand.
>
> The images are SVG created by an image server.  The pages load very
> quickly.  Every sign image is cached in your local browser.  Click on a few
> links and then go backwards in the browser history.  Notice that the pages
> load instantly.
>
> Zooming in on the page will also reflow the text.  If you think the signs
> are too small, resize the text.  On Mac, [Command]+ will zoom a page.
>
>
>
>
> There is a lot of technical infrastructure that makes the ASL Wikipedia
> work within the Wikimedia movement.  For my presentation 31 at the
> Symposium, I have slides (5-7) about Wikimedia, Wikimedia Labs, and
> Wikimedia Incubator.
> http://www.signwriting.org/symposium/presentation0031.html
>
> If you would like to see a demo of Wikimedia Incubator, watch the
> SignWriting Symposium 2014, Day 4 starting at 50:25.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCOWJ_-XQBg#t=3025
>
> Any person, for any sign language is invited to join Incubator.  The
> SignWriting project on Incubator is still young and there are a lot of
> technical requirements, but we need help from every type of person.  Dig
> into the movement, see what you can learn, and see what you can contribute.
>
> Thanks Yair Rand for the help on Incubator.  Good luck with the
> keyboarding.  I hope to give you feedback soon.
>
> Regards,
> -Steve
>  ________________________________________________
>
> SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION
>
> Valerie Sutton SignWriting List moderator sutton at signwriting.org
>
> Post Messages to the SignWriting List: sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu
>
> SignWriting List Archives & Home Page
> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist
>
> Join, Leave or Change How You Receive SW List Messages
> http://listserv.valenciacollege.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=SW-L&A=1
>
>
> ________________________________________________
>
>  SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION
>
> Valerie Sutton SignWriting List moderator sutton at signwriting.org
>
> Post Messages to the SignWriting List: sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu
>
> SignWriting List Archives & Home Page
> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist
>
> Join, Leave or Change How You Receive SW List Messages
> http://listserv.valenciacollege.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=SW-L&A=1
>
>

________________________________________________

SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION

Valerie Sutton
SignWriting List moderator
sutton at signwriting.org

Post Messages to the SignWriting List:
sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu

SignWriting List Archives & Home Page
http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist

Join, Leave or Change How You Receive SW List Messages
http://listserv.valenciacollege.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=SW-L&A=1
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