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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Sun Jun 6, 1999 1:41 am Subject: Need Your Advice on SignWriter Menus | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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June 5, 1999 Dear SignWriting List: I am writing to ask your advice about the new SignWriter 5.0 design. As you know, for quite some time I have been planning to give each country a choice of: Menus in Signs Menus in Words Menus in Signs and Words We have already accomplished this. I can choose ASL Menus or English Menus, while in the "USA". The positive side to this is that we show equal respect for all languages, and when a person chooses Menus in Signs, they learn to read SignWriting and ASL signs as they use the program. The negative side is that not all signed languages have equivalent signs for every Menu word (including ASL, which oftentimes uses fingerspelling for such terms). This means that not all countries will be able to provide me with the signs from their country to create the Menus in Signs - or at least - it will take some time before the terminology is decided upon by the Deaf Community in that country. So we will continually be updating the Menus, which can be extra work and will create several "new versions of the program". Meanwhile, there is a totally different way to design the program....use international icons for File, Edit, Print etc, forgetting all languages - no words - no signs - just international icons. We could have the picture of a printer, to represent Print, a picture of a file folder, to represent File, and a picture of a Scissors and Pencil to represent Edit. Instead of listing the names of countries, we could display the flag for each country. Using international icons would simplify the work on my end, and it would save others the trouble of having to translate a bunch of computer terminology into signs, typing them in SignWriting, and then sending them to me to enter into the program. Another benefit....we would have fewer Menus up at the top of the screen because there would not be as many choices for the user to make. I know it probably sounds like I want the international icons, but actually I am not sure what is best. I am happy to do the Menus in Signs and Words if you feel that it is important. I remember how impressed I was with Daniela's SignDic design. Remember that? It is on this page: https://www.SignWriting.org/soft003.html You will notice that Daniela chose international icons - I would create totally different ones of course, but I think Daniela's design is charming. On the other hand, the Menus in Signs and Words encourages learning SignWriting and languages. So maybe it is a shame to lose that benefit. I definitely want to know your opinions. What would you prefer? 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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