Charles Butler wrote:
>The writing system may relate to the center of the body, which helps me
>greatly in teaching the system, but I don't know how, in typing, people can
>relate to the center of the body, when the first key they strike using
>SignWriter is a right hand key, not a left hand key.
SignWriting List
July 26, 2001
Of course typing and reading are two different things. SignWriter 4.4
was not designed for our present way of writing, but I fudge it
anyway, typing slowly and making the symbols move to where I need
them...in other words...I am putting the reader's needs ahead of
typing speed, since we do not have a better computer program right
now.
SignWriter 4.4 is not a perfect computer program. It was based on
writing from left to right, first designed in 1986, and completed in
1995. That was the time period when we wrote from left to right.
Since then, we started to write down the page and began focusing on
"center". Richard Gleaves got a full-time job at Qualcomm, and could
not program for us anymore. He did one last thing before he stopped
working on SignWriter...he did ColumnMaker which at least converted
the typing from left to right into vertical columns...But that was
not what I really wanted...I wanted a program that actually types
vertically from the beginning.
As you know, I worked on the Java version of SignWriter, SignWriter
5.0, for years...which has a different way to type than SignWriter
4.4.
SignWriter 5.0 is supposed to offer the ability to type down the page
and in a centrally-focused fashion. Our nonprofit organization raised
and spent over $100,000.00 on the program over a period of 6 years,
paying different programmers, but sadly, every programmer found it to
be harder than expected, and they all handed me partially written
java code. One told me he didn't expect to have to program something
as difficult as programming Chinese...which took generations of
software development.
I would be happy to share the source code with anyone interested, and
I have recently done that with other java programmers, but
programmers always want to start again from scratch, because there
were too many programmers over too many years...and it is like too
many cooks in the kitchen...all the source code needs to be
coordinated...a very large job indeed...but there is some working
code...so I am praying something can be done with it later on...
If there are programmers on the SW List who would like the java
source code, I will be happy to send it to them. I can give a tiny
bit of tech support on the sources...in the sense that I know what I
wanted, and the history behind what was done, but I am not a Java
programmer myself, and the old programmers are not available to us.
That is why I am moving ahead with the SignWriting Online Dictionary
Database in FileMaker, which includes SignBank and
SymbolBank...Dictionary databases are always useful. But it does not
supply a better typing program...only a way to prepare dictionaries
in a more sophisticated fashion.
So never assume I am happy with the way the software is...I always
want better software!
I am curious...has SignNet completed the three computer programs they
were working on...for Windows? If so, can people outside Brazil use
those programs?...I would be happy to purchase them, if they are
interested.
Have you typed with the Brazilian programs? SignTalk, and others?
--
Val ;->
-----------------------------
Valerie Sutton
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