[Sw-l] Digitizing SignWriting DOS Keyboards

Wed Jan 12 01:05:40 UTC 2022

SignWriting List
January 11, 2022

Hi Amit,

A very big smile.

This just shows the very different world I came from in 1986 when software development began. The old SignWriter DOS Fingerspelling Keyboards were far more than just fingerspelling. We also included punctuation and the numbers zero through 9, and also accented symbols that were specific to certain sign languages and not to others. Each keyboard was finally honed to the country and the culture of the time.

So when they typed in SignWriter DOS, they did not have to think. All of the symbols appeared, and they were just typing spoken language, but reading fingerspelling symbols.

The British sign language fingerspelling keyboard did not have the numbers zero through nine on their keyboard because at that time, back in 1986, they did not have a standardized number system in the sign languages in the entire country of Great Britain. A lovely young Deaf woman from Great Britain stayed with me for several weeks in California to try to figure out how we were going to be able to complete the keyboard design because they didn't know which school system’s system to choose when it came to the numbers zero through nine. I can't remember how we left it but anyway, we were doing real development of the time for languages that had never been written. Now we're in a new era.

I beleve can make a text file listing the FSW like that, and will try ;-)

Attached is a screen capture of the Portuguese Fingerspelling Keyboard from SignWriter DOS in 1986. Notice the numbers on the top row and punctuation symbols are in different places than they are on US keyboards. Fun to look back  ;-)

> On Jan 11, 2022, at 3:41 PM, Amit Moryossef <amitmoryossef at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Thanks for expanding on my request Valerie!
> 
> The format that currently exists inside SignBank already is one of a ".fngr" file, which is like a CSV:
> A,M507x507S1f720487x492
> B,M507x507S14720493x485
> C,
> M508x507S16d20491x487
> .....
> 
> Each letter/character on the keyboard gets a sign. Usually, just one symbol, but can be multiple like the sign for "J" in ASL:
> J,M513x507S19220492x488S2a20c476x472
> I think that sticking to this format in aggregating all the fingerspelling data from the SignWriting DOS Keyboards would also allow adding these to SignBank.
> Attached is the file for portuguese, for example/
> 
> Amit
> 
> On Tue, Jan 11, 2022 at 11:59 PM Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org> wrote:
> SignWriting List
> January 11, 2022
> 
> Amit,
> How do you want to search for the newly entered symbols? Do you prefer SignPuddle Online? Do you prefer SignMaker? How will you find all of them?
> 
> We have at the moment the German, American, Honduran and Portugal Fingerspelling keyboards entered in SignPuddle 2 (for Fingerspeller). I have no idea how to find them all though, in a long list of fingerspelling symbls, outside of the Fingerspeller program.
> 
> I would be happy to do the old SignWriter DOS German-Swiss Fingerspelling and the Brazilian Fingerspelling Keyboards, but I just need to know the way you want to search for them? We can create a theme under text that says fingerspelling keyboard or something like that and then you would search for every symbol that has that in the text area. Or perhaps Steve or you can automatically just find everything?
> 
> So please tell me how you want me to enter them. I'll be happy to do a couple of keyboards as soon as I understand how to enter them. Thanks so much for your help.
> 
> I wait for your instruction. ;-)
> 
> I hope others will grab the paying job!
> 
> Val ;-)
> 
> -------
> 
> 
> 
> > On Jan 11, 2022, at 8:00 AM, Valerie Sutton <sutton at SIGNWRITING.ORG> wrote:
> > 
> > SignWriting List
> > January 11, 2022
> > 
> > Hello SignWriting List, and Amit!
> > 
> > Thank you for posting this message, Amit, asking for volunteers to write the symbols of the SignWriter DOS Fingerspelling Keyboards in FSW.
> > 
> > For those signwriters who do not know, what is FSW? When you write a sign in SignPuddle Online or in SignMaker, each sign saved there, can be formatted in FSW (Formal SignWriting) or SWU (SignWriting Unicode). Those are two software formats available.
> > 
> > So if you write each symbol of your fingerspelling for your country, in SignPuddle Online or SignMaker, each as a separate entry, then each symbol is available in FSW.
> > 
> > So to do this work, you will need to first find the SignWriter DOS keyboard design for your country here:
> > 
> > SignWriter DOS Fingerspelling Keyboard Designs:
> > https://www.signwriting.org/forums/software/fingkeys/fkey001.html
> > 
> > Then, go to your country’s files in SignPuddle Online or SignMaker.
> > 
> > SignPuddle Online
> > https://www.signbank.org/signpuddle/index.html#signpuddle2.0
> > 
> > SignMaker 2017 or 2022
> > https://www.signbank.org/signmaker.html
> > 
> > Then, in your country’s dictionary file, do the following:
> > 
> > 1. Search to be sure that the symbols are not entered already by someone else!
> > 2. Add any that are not entered already.
> > 3. Then post to the SignWriting List, telling us that your country is finished.
> > 
> > Thank you for considering to volunteer...
> > 
> > I believe there are at least 6 countries done, or almost done already… but you will have to search for each symbol to be sure...
> > 
> > Please post to the SW List with questions and tell us when you are done with your country …
> > 
> > Thank you to all the signwriters, and to all the software developers, to make all this possible...
> > 
> > Val ;-)
> > 
> > ______________
> > 
> > 
> >> On Jan 11, 2022, at 1:49 AM, Amit Moryossef <amitmoryossef at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >> 
> >> Hi all 
> >> I'm looking to re-digitize SignWriting fingerspelling in different languages, based on the SW DOS Keyboards. 
> >> 
> >> Would anyone be interested in paid work to go over the keyboards and write each character with FSW?
> >> 
> >> Amit
> > 
> > ________________________________________________
> > 
> > 
> > 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 <pt-pt.txt>
> 

________________________________________________

SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION

Valerie Sutton
SignWriting List moderator
sutton at signwriting.org

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

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