Hello Amir and Everyone...
I am glad to know that you have seen the outstanding and impressive programming that went
into creating written SignWriting in vertical columns on the Wikimedia Incubator. Many
thanks to everyone who volunteered their time, and continue to volunteer their time to
make this possible.
Regarding Unicode...
SignWriting was established in Unicode version 8 in mid-2015. So it is in Unicode
already.
Here is a link:
Wikipedia: SignWriting Unicode Block
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_SignWriting_(Unicode_block)
SignWriting Character Viewer
http://signbank.org/SignWriting_Character_Viewer.html#?ui=en&set=uni8
The only problem? It is not working correctly within Unicode to give us the layout
issues... In other words, the characters of the International SignWriting Alphabet (the
ISWA 2010) are officially in Unicode right now...and we have the TrueType Fonts developed
so technically the characters can be typed from left to right in a long row in Unicode
right now...
....but that is not the way Deaf people write using those symbols - they write in visual
clusters and in vertical columns - For example - let us imagine a sign that places the
hand on top of the head - Deaf people actually place that hand symbol above or on top of
the head symbol...but Unicode right now cannot do that...it will take adjustments to the
Unicode to make that possible. It can definitely be done. We have already given them the
proposal we feel will work. But the Unicode committees have to make the decision to allow
this unusual way of writing.
Meanwhile, we already have functioning Sign Language Wikipedias on the Wikimedia
Incubator, without Unicode, and we can type the edits directly on the web in full
correctly-written SignWriting, and we have all the layout issue solved and we are reading
in vertical columns...all this without Unicode.
So we have succeeded without Unicode, while we are waiting for the Unicode committees to
complete the layout issues (smile ;-)
No matter what happens, I want to thank you all for this amazing opportunity of showing
the world that we can indeed write Sign Language Wikipedias and I predict that articles
will continue to be written in the Incubator and that is wonderful!
If you wish to discuss the technical issues further, the two technicians to write to are
Steve Slevinski and Yair Rand.
Thank you once again -
Val ;-)
Valerie Sutton
sutton(a)signwriting.org
-----------------------------------------------------
On May 19, 2016, at 2:29 AM, Amir E. Aharoni
<amir.aharoni(a)mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
I'm not sure what is the work that Gerard is talking about. I don't know any sign
language, but the rendering appears OK to me.
The volunteers' work on vertical display is really commendable. It's even more
impressive when the UI language is set to ase:
https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/ase/M510x546S20320495x455S1fb20495x…
<https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/ase/M510x546S20320495x455S1fb20495x474S1f720490x497S11a20495x516_M511x551S18620493x450S1f720489x483S11a20494x502S20320494x536?uselang=ase>
I do wonder about this (and I believe that I raised this already): when SignWriting
enters Unicode, will it be possible to convert the content without trouble? A
not-quite-Unicode project is already a problem. If it's at least forward-compatible
with Unicode, I'll be less reluctant to support this.
--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com <http://aharoni.wordpress.com/>
“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
2016-05-15 9:47 GMT+03:00 Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com
<mailto:gerard.meijssen@gmail.com>>:
Hoi,
Have a look at this [1]. It clearly shows that a lot of work needs to be done to get
MediaWiki right for sign languages with SignWriting.
I propose that we let ASL be a Wikipedia It enables all the work that needs doing to make
it work properly. It deserves it imho as well.
Thanks,
GerardM
1.
https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/ase/M510x546S20320495x455S1fb20495x…
<https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/ase/M510x546S20320495x455S1fb20495x474S1f720490x497S11a20495x516_M511x551S18620493x450S1f720489x483S11a20494x502S20320494x536>
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