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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Tue Jun 1, 1999 1:36 pm Subject: Re: New SignWriter Features? | |
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>This is not necessarily a problem. I'm hardly a fluent reader of Hebrew, >but my training from Hebrew school has rubbed off enough that when I do >attempt to decipher Hebrew, I automatically start on the right side, even >though I'm a native (and extremely fluent) reader of English, where I always >start on the left side. I suspect that Chinese SW readers, once taught that >they have to switch scanning to the "wrong" side, will start automatically >doing so and it will become second nature for them. They might think it >"weird" at first (like I did with Hebrew) but later they will think nothing >of it for this particular writing system. > >--Donald Grushkin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ June 1, 1999 Hi Don - I agree with you, that we all can adjust to new languages quickly. The format or direction of reading and writing can be learned quickly. The only problem we have is that I am too flexible sometimes. And SignWriting is evolving and developing before our eyes, where other writing systems are already established, and in the case of Chinese, established for centuries. It is hard to find a balance between flexibility and structure. But I am trying. The design I handed our computer programmer, Rich Johnston, yesterday is set up so that all text is entered one way, down in one long continuing column. All symbols will be able to be typed, including the brackets used in Spain. Then once it is typed, the typist can go under a Menu list called "Page", and they can view and print the document in one of these formats: 1. Down, columns left to right 2. Down, columns right to left 3. Across, left to right 4. Across, right to left 5. Poetic Patterns The default is number 1 above, since that is the standard way we have been publishing, and since it was requested by Deaf signers skilled in SignWriting. I hope this finds a middle ground. It is important that I chose to enter all signs down in a vertical column, since writing down gives SignWriting certain added benefits that typing across can never give us. And those benefits will be there, no matter which Page format is chosen later. I worked this out with our programmer, and I think my design should work internally in the computer code too - we will see!! Valerie :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Valerie Sutton SignWriting https://www.SignWriting.org The DAC, Deaf Action Committee for SW Center For Sutton Movement Writing an educational nonprofit organization Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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