Re: presentations

[Guylhem Aznar <signwriting-gnome externe net>]

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 18:21:07 +0100
Bill Haneman <Bill Haneman Sun COM> wrote:
> I would think that Dasher might be a nice interface for this, as Matthew
> suggests.  It isn't very keyboard-like, however. 

Dasher is a possibility. But you need stats, and current text in signwriting are
all but standards. Some use .gif pics of the symbols and put them in a html
file, other do xml based entries, etc. It should be possible to get some texts
and analyse them but it would be very complicated.

I think

> Also, GOK (gnome onscreen keyboard) might make a nice platform for this,
> and I believe it might be relatively easy to integrate signwriting
> support into GOK.  GOK can support multiple shift-levels, etc. on its
> virtual compose keyboards, and also can now support keys with images (as
> opposed to text-only) on their virtual "key caps".

I'm exploring the keyboard option, but this is very complex : I'd have to try to
fit more than 7 symbols on each of the 60 keys (F1->F12, numbers, letters, ...)
It would be very difficult to learn and use (ctrl-alt-shift-whatever...)

Another possibility would be using group keys switching between each family of
symbols, ie the keys meaning would change once such a switch is toggled, but
that would leave the complexity of the keyboard layout. 7 tiny symbols printed
on each key with 7 switching key to use each symbol would still sound very
complex.

> GOK includes a 'keyboard editor' for creating new keyboards, though it
> doesn't include a UI for adding images yet.  That would be a nice
> enhancement, since the image feature is supported by GOK already, just
> not by the keyboard editor.

I'm likely to support iso 9995-7 (symbols for function keys : shift become a
arrows, ctrl a wheel ...) so that will be fixed if I implement a keyboard.

Guylhem

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