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From:  Valerie Sutton
Date:  Mon Aug 2, 1999  5:56 pm
Subject:  Re: Acronyms for Signed Languages


> But, LIBRAS sounds appealing.
> To stretch into 3 letters, I would rather be LSB than LBR.
>
>Eduardo Gheller Mörschbächer
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August 2, 1999

Hello Eduardo and Everyone on the SW List!

Thank you for your good suggestions. I know, Eduardo, that you are a
programmer, so this is a perfect time for me to explain why I need these
acronyms in the first place....

The acronyms will be used internally in the programming source code of
SignWriter 5.0, to refer to and tag different signed languages. But the
user will never see acronyms.

The user will either see icons, or the names of their signed language
written in SignWriting, or the full name of the signed language written in
words. I am not choosing to use the acronyms in the user interface for
SignWriter 5.0.

So, the shorter versions of the acronyms are helpful for source code,
although longer names might be ok...I am not sure.

You probably wonder why all this matters? :-)

The reason is this... Someday, when SignWriter 5.0's source code is stable,
and the program is released to the general public, I plan to share the
source code with other programmers, and when that day comes, it is
important, I feel, that the programmers refer to the different countries
with a standardized list of acronyms. This will give signed languages added
respect with the ISO, the International Standards Organization, which sets
the standards for the use of acronyms in programming around the world.

When we started designing our amazing international user's interface for
SignWriter 5.0, our programmer went up on the web and found the ISO's
listings for the acronyms for spoken languages, and the acronyms for
countries too:

Language Acronyms Standards ISO 639:1988:
https://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/https/related/iso639.txt

Country Acronyms Standards ISO 3166:
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/iso3166-countrycodes
https://www.bcpl.net/~jspath/isocodes.html


So we have been referring to those listings ever since, and using those
acronymns in our source code.

But the ISO did not include acronyms for signed languages. So my programmer
had no choice but to ask me what acronyms we should use, when referring to
different signed languages inside the source code.

I thought about it, and decided that SignWriter 5.0 should use the best
acronyms possible, even though it is hidden inside the program, because in
the long run, this can help signed languages receive the respect they
deserve in the world of programming.

So, Eduardo, I do realize that the term LIBRAS is used in Brazil for
Brazilian Sign Language, and certainly it will continue to be used. But in
the source code, a three letter acronym might be better - what do you think?

Valerie :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Valerie Sutton


SignWriting Web Site
https://www.SignWriting.org

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The DAC
Deaf Action Committee for SignWriting
Center For Sutton Movement Writing
an educational nonprofit organization
PO. Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA

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  Replies Author Date
1616 Re: Acronyms for Signed Languages Stuart Thiessen Mon  8/2/1999
1618 ISO Should Include Signed Languages Valerie Sutton Mon  8/2/1999

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