Text 20197, 102 rader
Skriven 2011-06-28 00:12:12 av Lee Lofaso (2:203/2)
  Kommentar till text 20145 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Character sets
======================
Hello Michiel,

 MvdV> First. let me tell you that once, a long time ago, I too thought that US
 MvdV> ASCII ought to be enough for everyone. Once, I held the illusion that
the
 MvdV> (then) mess with extanded character set could be avoided by every nation
 MvdV> making some small modifications to transliterate "funny" characters into
 MvdV> sequences of ASCII characters. Like it exists in Germany. "Why make it
 MvdV> difficult if it can be easy" I thought.

Björn should change the rules for this echo so that we could use
the ASL Font set (fingerspelling) used by the deaf.  Here is a page
for Windows and Mac versions (freeware) of ASL Font -

http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/gallaudettruetypefont.htm

Gallaudet University is mainly for deaf folks, as you and others
might have guessed.

 MvdV> But I found out it is not all that easy to do away wit "funny
characters".

You don't have to worry about "funny characters" with
ASL/fingerspelling.

 MvdV> Even in Dutch one has to go through some complicated hoops to correctly
say
 MvdV> what one wants to say using ASCII only.

Why should the deaf be forced to use ASCII only?
Or ASCII similar?  Time to expand your horizons, Michiel...

 MvdV> Also... I got a job in a company designing equipment for industrial
 MvdV> automation.

Goodie for you.

 MvdV> They had a big customer in Switzerland and they demanded umlauts and
other
 MvdV> "funny stuff". So I had no choice but to delve into the issue. And then
I
 MvdV> found, it was not really all that hard. So I turned around and gave up
the
 MvdV> idea of shaping the user to fit the tool.

Since it was, by your own admission, "not really all that hard",
then why do you and others insist the deaf not be allowed to use
ASL/fingerspelling in communicating on message boards and BBSes?

 MvdV> As a scientist I could afford it, as am employee working for a
commercial
 MvdV> company, I could not. So adapt the tool to fit the user...

So where's the problem?  Why are you and others so unwilling to "adapt
the tool to fit the user" in regards to the deaf community?

 MvdV> For those interested in (the history) of character set issues, I have
some
 MvdV> interesting reading:

 MvdV> A good explanatiom of the basics:
 MvdV> http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/chars.html

 MvdV> A good resume of the history, but mostly dedicated to unicode:
 MvdV> http://czyborra.com/

 MvdV> Inicode and Linux (German)
 MvdV> http://www.unicodecharacter.com/

The best part about fingerspelling is that you do not even need
a computer to use it.  :)

 MvdV> For those wanting to go even further back and want to know about Morse,
 MvdV> Baudot, Flexwriter and Murray code:
 MvdV> http://www.unicodecharacter.com/
 MvdV> Als of interest because we all know, or at least have herad of the
Author:
 MvdV> TJ.

Learn to use your hand.  And then learn to use your other hand.
Once you have done that, put your hands together and learn to use
both of them.  At the same time.  Then you will have learned the
fine art of fingerspelling.  With, or without, a computer.

 MvdV> And Finally:
 MvdV> http://www.unicode.org/

And then there is tactile sign language.  Derived in Louisiana.
For the deaf/blind.  Now that is a fun language...

 MvdV> * Origin: http://www.vlist.org (2:280/5555)

Is that a serious organization?
Is it limited to scientists?
What about political scientists?
Do they qualify?
If so, where do I sign up?

--Lee

--- MesNews/1.06.00.00-gb
 * Origin:  (2:203/2)