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The SignPuddle Standard for SignWriting Text
draft-slevinski-signwriting-text-01

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Replaced".
Author Stephen E. Slevinski Jr.
Last updated 2013-10-30 (Latest revision 2013-05-09)
Replaced by draft-slevinski-formal-signwriting
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draft-slevinski-signwriting-text-01
Sutton-Slevinski Collaboration                              S. Slevinski
Internet-Draft                                                SignPuddle
Intended status: Informational                               May 9, 2013
Expires: November 10, 2013

              The SignPuddle Standard for SignWriting Text
                  draft-slevinski-signwriting-text-01

Abstract

   For concreteness, because the universal character set is not yet
   universal, and because an international standard for the internet
   community should be documented and stable, this I-D has been released
   with the intention of producing an RFC to document the character use
   and naming conventions of the SignWriting community on the Internet.

   The SignWriting Script is an international standard for writing sign
   languages by hand or with computers.  From education to research,
   from entertainment to religion, SignWriting has proven useful because
   people are using it to write signed languages.  The SignWriting
   Script has two major families: Block Printing for the reader and
   Handwriting for the writer.  The script encoding model presented in
   this document evolved from the Block Printing half of the SignWriting
   Script.

   The SignWriting Text encoding model encompasses the Block Printing
   family of the SignWriting Script.  The plain text model for the
   mathematical names has been stable since January 12th, 2012.  The
   visual image can be SVG generated on the server or created with an
   experimental TrueType Font.  The coded character sets and character
   encoding forms are documented with regular expressions.

   The ad hoc graphemes of informal SignWriting were first created in
   1974.  Ad hoc graphemes are still used in the handwriting family.
   The standardized symbols of computerized Block Printing text began in
   1986.  After several generations of writers and standardized
   symbolsets, the ISWA 2010 has been optimized and refined as a 16-bit
   coded character set with several isomorphic encodings based on an
   ordered hierarchy with 6 degrees of significance.  The International
   SignWriting Alphabet 2010 is a mathematical symbolset that has been
   stable since its initial release on May 11th, 2010.

   The SignPuddle Standard for SignWriting Text is an open and freely
   available encoding model for sign language as text.  The licenses
   include the Open Font License for the fonts, Creative Commons by-sa
   (Attribution, Share Alike) for the documentation, and the GPL for the
   software implementation.  The technological infrastructure continues

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   to expand and should be fully realized by the time this I-D has
   become an RFC.  SignPuddle Online contains almost 1 million examples
   of 2-dimensional signs written by the internet community.  Each
   logogram has a mathematical name which describes the freeform
   placement of the symbols.  These strings are the written record of
   the sign.  This standard and emerging infrastructure are used for the
   sign language Wikipedia project on Wikimedia Labs.  This standard is
   being integrated with the SignTyp linguistic coding system developed
   by Rachel Channon through an NSF grant.  This standard was the origin
   for the alternate Unicode proposals.

   For Unicode, the current use of the Private Use Area font characters
   is documented.  The state of the TrueType Font is explained.  A
   character proposal for plane 1 is included that is isomorphic with
   the characters that are currently used by the community.

   Three appendices discuss additional topics to the standard.  The
   first discusses the Modern SignWriting theory and example document,
   stable since January 12, 2012.  The second discusses the founding
   principles of Cartesian SignWriting: a script encoding model for
   SignWriting Block Printing.  The third discusses a common framework
   for written sign language grammar.

   This memo concretely defines a conceptual character encoding map for
   the Internet community.  It is published for reference, examination,
   implementation, and evaluation.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on November 10, 2013.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the

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   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     1.1.  Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     1.2.  Historical Foundation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     1.3.  Current Usage  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   2.  SignWriting Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     2.1.  2-Dimensional Logograms  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     2.2.  Viewpoints, Planes, & Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     2.3.  Block Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       2.3.1.  Education  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       2.3.2.  Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       2.3.3.  Computerized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     2.4.  Handwriting  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       2.4.1.  Cursive  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       2.4.2.  Shorthand  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   3.  SignWriting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     3.1.  Mathematical Name  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       3.1.1.  Pattern String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       3.1.2.  Unordered String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       3.1.3.  Compact and Tractable  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     3.2.  Visual Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
       3.2.1.  TrueType Font  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
       3.2.2.  Server Generated SVG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     3.3.  Character Encoding Scheme  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
       3.3.1.  ASCII  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
       3.3.2.  Unicode  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     3.4.  Coded Character Set  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
       3.4.1.  x-ISWA-2010  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
       3.4.2.  x-Binary-SignWriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
       3.4.3.  x-Character-SignWriting  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
     3.5.  Character Encoding Form  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
       3.5.1.  Lite Markup  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
       3.5.2.  Formal SignWriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
       3.5.3.  Kartesian SignWriting  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

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         3.5.3.1.  Raw  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
         3.5.3.2.  Expanded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
         3.5.3.3.  Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
         3.5.3.4.  Panel  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     3.6.  Query Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
   4.  ISWA 2010  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
     4.1.  Grapheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     4.2.  Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
     4.3.  Hierarchy  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
     4.4.  Combined Character Sequence  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
     4.5.  Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
   5.  SignPuddle Standard  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
     5.1.  Licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
       5.1.1.  Open Font License  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
       5.1.2.  Creative Commons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
       5.1.3.  GPL  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
       5.1.4.  BSD  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
     5.2.  Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
       5.2.1.  International SignWriting Alphabet Fonts . . . . . . . 39
       5.2.2.  SignWriting Icon Server  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
       5.2.3.  SignWriting Thin Viewer  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
         5.2.3.1.  CSS Text Layout  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
     5.3.  Compatibility  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
       5.3.1.  SignPuddle Online  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
       5.3.2.  Wikimedia Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
       5.3.3.  SignTyp  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
       5.3.4.  SignWriter Studio  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
       5.3.5.  DELEGS Online  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
   6.  Unicode Integration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
     6.1.  Private Use Area Font Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
     6.2.  Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
   7.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
   8.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
   Appendix A.  Modern SignWriting  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
   Appendix B.  Cartesian SignWriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
     B.1.  Signbox  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
     B.2.  Temporal Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
     B.3.  Logograph of Logographs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
   Appendix C.  Theory of SignWriting Grammar and Encoding  . . . . . 50
     C.1.  Logographic Sign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
     C.2.  Punctuation and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
     C.3.  Terms  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
     C.4.  Lanes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
     C.5.  Modes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
     C.6.  Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
       C.6.1.  Freeform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
       C.6.2.  Restricted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
       C.6.3.  Non-form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

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     C.7.  Positioning  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
       C.7.1.  Absolute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
       C.7.2.  Relative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
   Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

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1.  Introduction

   For concreteness, because the universal character set is not yet
   universal, and because an international standard for the internet
   community should be documented and stable, this I-D has been released
   with the intention of producing an RFC to document the character use
   and naming conventions of the SignWriting community on the Internet.

   The SignWriting Script is an international standard for writing sign
   languages by hand or with computers.  From education to research,
   from entertainment to religion, SignWriting has proven useful because
   people are using it to write signed languages.

   Sign languages are fundamentally different than spoken language in
   the quality of the segments in the stream of human speech.  The
   SignWriting Script uses 2-dimensional logograms with freeform symbol
   placement to capture the spatial and simultaneous segments in the
   stream of signed language speech.

   The SignWriting fonts and standards are freely and openly available,
   with no royalties or restrictions.  This information is provided to
   promote a complete solution for an open culture in written sign
   language.

1.1.  Overview

   The SignPuddle Standard for SignWriting Text is an emerging standard
   intended for the internet community.  This memo concretely defines a
   fully developed model for reference, examination, implementation, and
   evaluation.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

   The fonts are officially available [1].  The release candidate of the
   SignWriting Icon Server is available on Github [2], hosted on
   SignBank [3] and hosted on Wikimedia Labs [4].

   Section 1 Introduction: includes a discussion of terminology,
   historical background, current usage, and this overview of the
   document.

   Section 2 SignWriting Script: includes a general discussion of the
   SignWriting script.  Both the Block Printing and the Handwriting
   families are discussed.

   Section 3 SignWriting Text: includes a general discussion of the
   plain text of logograms for the mathematical names and visual images.

   Section 4 ISWA 2010: discusses the SignWriting grapheme, symbolset,
   and symbol encoding of the ISWA 2010.  Symbols are visually iconic,

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   uniquely identified, and organized in a layered hierarchy.

   Section 5 SignPuddle Standard: defines the licenses, infrastructure,
   and the data available.

   Section 6 Unicode Integration: discusses the private use area font
   characters and the proposed characters on plane 1.

   Appendix A Modern SignWriting: discusses the theory and example
   document released on January 12th, 2012.

   Appendix B Cartesian SignWriting: presents a script encoding model
   for SignWriting Block Printing.  Formal structures for logographic
   sign are mixed with punctuation to form text.

   Appendix C Theory of SignWriting Grammar: discusses the common and
   possible script encoding models for written sign language.

1.2.  Historical Foundation

   In 1966, Valerie Sutton invented the DanceWriting notation, which was
   the precursor to the entire Sutton MovementWriting System.

   in 1974, Valerie Sutton invented the SignWriting Script.  The
   subsequent development of the script was driven by input from readers
   and writers, both hearing and Deaf.

   From 1974 to 1986 SignWriting Script was written exclusively by hand.
   During this time the use of the script spread around the world, and
   to this day it continues to be written on paper and chalkboard.

   In 1981, the development of SignWriting Block Printing evolved
   rapidly with the publication of the SignWriting Newsletter, which was
   published from 1981 to 1984.

   In 1984 Emerson and Stern Associates received a grant to develop a
   word processor for SignWriting Block Printing.  The resulting
   software, which operated on the Apple II, supported only a minor
   subset of the SignWriting system.  It was not subsequently used, and
   received no further development.

   In 1986, Richard Gleaves designed and developed SignWriter as a word
   processor for SignWriting Block Printing.  SignWriter introduced the
   keyboard typing model and a symbol encoding system which served as
   the basis for subsequent encoding systems.  The initial version was
   for the Apple IIe, and the resulting symbolset was limited by the
   128KB memory limit.

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   By 1995, SignWriter had been ported to MS-DOS and expanded to support
   multiple languages, an integrated sign dictionary, and the full
   SSS-95 symbolset.  SignWriter DOS was distributed on the internet,
   and achieved widespread international use.

   In 1999, the SSS-99 symbolset was created for SignWriter Java.  The
   revamped symbolset was created without the limitations imposed upon
   the SSS-95.

   In 2002, the SSS-2002 symbolset reorganized the structure of the
   symbols imposing a multi level hierarchy with the modern symbol ID.
   The SSS-2002 was the first symbolset used in the SignBank 2002
   application by Todd Duell.

   In 2004, the SSS-2004 symbolset was created after reaching widespread
   international use.  The SSS-2004 was the first symbolset used in the
   SignPuddle application by Steve Slevinski.  This symbolset was
   expanded to include international MovementWriting concepts and became
   known as the International MovementWriting Alphabet.

   September 12, 2008, Valerie Sutton and Steve Slevinski released the
   ISWA 2008 under the open font license.  The International SignWriting
   Alphabet 2008 was a major refactoring of the IMWA concept by
   eliminating the general MovementWriting symbols and focusing on the
   SignWriting script.  Valerie organized and named 37,811 unique
   symbols.  Steve analyzed and formatted the ISWA 2008, creating a 16-
   bit coded character set called the x-ISWA-2008.  Steve also created
   the first iteration of Cartesian SignWriting as a script encoding
   model.

   The ISWA 2008 was used in a production setting for a year and a half
   without issue.  In 2010, the ISWA 2008 was updated. 576 unused
   symbols had a palm facing irregularity which needed to be fixed.
   General size and shape of the symbols did not change.

   May 11th, 2010, Valerie and Steve released the ISWA 2010.  The ISWA
   2010 was designed as a focused refactor of the ISWA 2008 concepts.
   The update included a restructured hierarchy, better movement
   symbols, elimination of variation defects, addition of new hand
   shapes, and removal of hand shape variations.  Revision 2 of
   Cartesian SignWriting script encoding model was released for the ISWA
   2010.  The symbolset and encoding have been stable since release,
   with only a cosmetic fix for symbol 01-06-017-01-03-10.

   June 22nd, 2010, Steve refactored the coded character set as 12-bit
   rather than 16-bit to improve searching.  The updated script encoding
   model was called Cartesian SignWriting revision 3.

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   October 20th, 2010, the initial release of the ISWA 2010 Font
   Reference.  Since then, 2 years of stability and growth.

   February 23rd, 2011, the addition of SVG using polygon line tracing.

   September 19th, 2011, the complete SVG Refinement by Adam Frost.

   January 12th, 2012, the fully realized character encoding model for
   SignWriting Text.

   May 2nd, 2012, added database fonts.

   November 1st, 2012, the prerelease of the SignWriting Icon Server.

1.3.  Current Usage

   SignPuddle Online contains almost 1 million examples of 2-dimensional
   signs written by the internet community.  Each logogram has a
   mathematical name that describes the freeform placement of the
   symbols.  These strings are the written record of the sign.  XML
   files organize these names by language and purpose.  The ASL
   Dictionary has over 9 thousand entries.

   This standard and emerging infrastructure are used for the sign
   language Wikipedia project on Wikimedia Labs (Section 5.3.2).  This
   standard is being integrated with the SignTyp linguistic coding
   system developed by Rachel Channon through an NSF grant
   (Section 5.3.3).  This standard was the origin for the alternate
   Unicode proposals.  Compatibility with this standard is highly
   encouraged to efficiently leverage sign language as text.

   For Unicode, the current use of the Private Use Area font characters
   is documented.  A character proposal for plane 1 is included that is
   isomorphic with the characters that are currently used by the
   community.

2.  SignWriting Script

   The SignWriting Script is the universal and complete solution for
   written sign language.  It has been applied to a wide and deep
   international community of many sign languages including: American
   Sign Language, Arabian Sign Languages, Australian Sign Language,
   Bolivian Sign Language, Brazilian Sign Language, British Sign
   Language, Catalan Sign Language, Colombian Sign Language, Czech Sign
   Language, Danish Sign Language, Dutch Sign Language, Ethiopian Sign
   Language, Finnish Sign Language, Flemish Sign Language, French-
   Belgian Sign Language, French Sign Language, German Sign Language,

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   Greek Sign Language, Irish Sign Language, Italian Sign Language,
   Japanese Sign Language, Malawi Sign Language, Malaysian Sign
   Language, Maltese Sign Language, Mexican Sign Language, Nepalese Sign
   Language, New Zealand Sign Language, Nicaraguan Sign Language,
   Norwegian Sign Language, Peruvian Sign Language, Philippines Sign
   Language, Polish Sign Language, Portugese Sign Language, Quebec Sign
   Language, South African Sign Language, Spanish Sign Language, Swedish
   Sign Language, Swiss Sign Language, Taiwanese Sign Language, and
   Tunisian Sign Language.

   Initially developed in 1974, the script was written exclusively by
   hand for 12 years.  Since then the script has spread around the world
   and continues to be written on paper and chalkboard.

   In 1981, SignWriting Publishing rapidly evolved with Block Printing.
   In 1986, computerization of the SignWriting Block Printing began.
   The current symbol encoding of the ISWA 2010 has been stable since
   the font release on October 20th, 2010.  The current character
   encoding model has been stable since the initial release of Modern
   SignWriting on January 12th, 2012.

2.1.  2-Dimensional Logograms

   A founding principle of the SignWriting Script is that signs are
   written in 2-dimensional signboxes.  The size of the signbox varies
   with the symbols written inside.  Both block printing and handwriting
   use 2-dimensional logograms.

   Inside of a 2-dimensional signbox, the symbols are placed in a
   freeform, 2-dimensional arrangement.  This feature of the script
   expresses spatial relation directly.

2.2.  Viewpoints, Planes, & Perspectives

   Writing based on vision uses two viewpoints: receptive and
   expressive.  The receptive viewpoint is based on the idea of
   receiving an image.  For the receptive viewpoint, the right hand of a
   signer will be written on the left side of the canvas.  When
   SignWriting is used for transcription, the receptive view is most
   often used.  The related writing systems of DanceWriting and
   MovementWriting normally use the receptive viewpoint.

   The expressive viewpoint is based on the idea of expressing a
   concept.  For the expressive viewpoint, the right hand of a signer
   will be written on the right side of the canvas.  When SignWriting is
   used for authorship, the expressive view is most often used.

   The are two main writing planes: the front wall (Frontal Plane) and

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   the floor (Transverse Plane).  The choice of writing plane can affect
   the shape of the graphemes, such as the fill pattern for the hand
   graphemes or the tail for the movement arrow graphemes.

   There are two perspectives: front and top.  The front perspective is
   a straight on view of/from the signer.  The top perspective is a top-
   down view of the signer.  Usually, a cluster will be written from a
   single perspective.

2.3.  Block Printing

   Block printing is only half of the SignWriting Script.  Block
   printing is based on the iconic symbols of the symbol set.  Each of
   the iconic symbols is structured, standardized, and highly featural.
   Block printing is used in education, publishing, and is the basis of
   the computerized model.

   Valerie Sutton writes, "SignWriting Printing is easy to read.  It is
   designed for the reader.  The Printing can be written by hand as well
   as by computer.  If I am writing a letter to a friend in ASL, I write
   the letter in SignWriting Printing, taking the time to make sure that
   my handwritten-symbols are easy and clear to read.  I try to write as
   clearly as if I were using a computer.  Of course it is slower, but
   it is worth it, knowing that my friend will be able to read my
   letter!"

2.3.1.  Education

   Kids all over the earth [5] are learning block printing thanks to
   Valerie Sutton and the material she donates though the Center for
   Sutton Movement Writing [6].

2.3.2.  Publishing

   The history of SignWriting Publishing had a rapid development between
   1981 and 1984 with the SignWriter Newspaper [7].  Patience and
   concentration was needed to write neat enough for publication.
   Stencils and wax transfer symbols were used in painstaking work.
   Typesetters could consistently reproduce the iconic symbols.

   Discussions during early publishing history were a catalyst for
   developing a way to type sign language.

   The SignWriter Newspaper suspended in 1984 and resumed publication as
   a typed SignWriter Newsletter in 1989.

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2.3.3.  Computerized

   Block printing is the basis of the computerized SignWriting model.

   Read about the Historical Foundation in section 2.C of Modern
   SignWriting.

   Computerized SignWriting is important, but there is so much more [8]
   to the SignWriting Script [9].

2.4.  Handwriting

   SignWriting Handwriting [10] has always been a part of the script.

   Valerie Sutton writes, "SignWriting Handwriting is easier to write by
   hand, than the Printing.  It is designed for the writer.  There are
   several variations of Handwriting, and since most of the time, the
   writer is only writing for private notes, some writers create their
   own shortcuts that work just for them...and that is fine!"

2.4.1.  Cursive

   A popular form of SignWriting is cursive.  It can be shared among a
   groups of writers or it can be individualized and personal.  Cursive
   writing is designed to have fluid marks and a natural flow.  Cursive
   writing may use fewer features than the iconic symbols, but should be
   related to an iconic symbol in appearance and meaning.  Once
   developed, this style of writing is great for taking notes in a
   class.

2.4.2.  Shorthand

   Shorthand is a skill of the proficient writer [11].  They can write
   SignWriting shorthand quickly and naturally.

   In 1982, Sign Language Stenographers could record sign language with
   SignWriting Shorthand at normal signing speed [12].  Time tests
   proved practice and special training were required.  The marks they
   write are personal style of quick and efficient strokes with a highly
   developed reception to what signifies meaning.  They understand the
   iconic symbols of the SignWriting Script, but their marks are
   personal reminders rather than a fully developed text.

   The shorthand in and of itself is often an incomplete representation
   of the gestures that were experienced.  The shorthand writing can be
   thought of as a short-term memory device.  Often shorthand notes must
   be revised and extended at a later time, the sooner the better.

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3.  SignWriting Text

   SignWriting Text uses plain text that is iconic.  The sequential
   characters specify properties in common between forms.  The text is
   diagrammatic with defined relationships and simple structures.  It
   clarifies likenesses that are topologically similar.

   SignWriting Text is grammatically correct because it supports
   2-dimensional arrangement and writing with lanes.  Mathematically
   sized logograms are named with plain text strings based on patterns.
   Simple HTML and CSS are used for proper vertical layout.

   This model separates visual display from layout issues.  It is
   compatible with TrueType Fonts and server generated SVG.

   The model defines several compatible coded character sets and
   character encoding forms.

3.1.  Mathematical Name

   The mathematical name of a logographic sign is a plain text string of
   characters.  This encoding model makes explicit those features which
   can be effectively and efficiently processed.  Formal languages and
   regular expressions are used to solve fundamental problems.

3.1.1.  Pattern String

   The mathematical name is structured with 11 different tokens.  They
   can be grouped in 4 layers: the 5 structural makers (A, B, L, M, R),
   the 3 base symbol ranges (w, s, P), the 2 modifier indexes (i, o),
   and the numbers (n).

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   Token Patterns

   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | Pattern                               | Description               |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | wio                                   | a writing symbol as 3     |
   |                                       | tokens of writing base,   |
   |                                       | fill modifier and         |
   |                                       | rotation modifier         |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | nn                                    | coordinate with X and Y   |
   |                                       | values as 2 numbers       |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | wionn                                 | a spatial symbol as 5     |
   |                                       | tokens, with 3 tokens for |
   |                                       | a writing symbol and 2    |
   |                                       | tokens for coordinates of |
   |                                       | top left placement        |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | (wionn)*                              | zero or more spatial      |
   |                                       | symbols                   |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | Bnn(wionn)*                           | a signbox with a          |
   |                                       | preprocessed maximum      |
   |                                       | coordinate and a list of  |
   |                                       | spatial symbols used for  |
   |                                       | horizontal writing        |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | [LMR]                                 | a lane marker: either     |
   |                                       | left, middle or right.    |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | [LMR]nn(wionn)*                       | a signbox in either the   |
   |                                       | left, middle, or right    |
   |                                       | lane with a preprocessed  |
   |                                       | maximum coordinate and a  |
   |                                       | list of spatial symbols   |
   |                                       | used for vertical writing |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | [ws]                                  | a writing base symbol or  |
   |                                       | a detailed location base  |
   |                                       | symbol                    |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | [ws]io                                | a writing symbol or a     |
   |                                       | detailed location symbol  |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | ([ws]io)+                             | one or more writing       |
   |                                       | symbols and/or detailed   |
   |                                       | location symbols          |

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   | (A([ws]io)+)?                         | an optional prefix as a   |
   |                                       | prefix marker followed by |
   |                                       | one or more writing       |
   |                                       | symbols and/or detailed   |
   |                                       | location symbols          |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | Pio                                   | a punctuation symbol as a |
   |                                       | punctuation base symbol   |
   |                                       | with a fill modifier and  |
   |                                       | a rotation modifier       |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | (((A([ws]io)+)?Bnn(wionn)*)|Pio)+     | a sign text for           |
   |                                       | horizontal writing as a   |
   |                                       | string of signboxes (with |
   |                                       | optional prefixes) and    |
   |                                       | punctuation               |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+
   | (((A([ws]io)+)?[LMR]nn(wionn)*)|Pio)+ | a sign text for vertical  |
   |                                       | writing as a string of    |
   |                                       | signboxes in lanes (with  |
   |                                       | optional prefixes) and    |
   |                                       | punctuation               |
   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------+

                                  Table 1

3.1.2.  Unordered String

   2-dimensional space does not have a normative 1-dimensional order.  A
   group of spatial symbols is defined as (wionn)* which is zero or more
   writing symbols with 2-dimensional placement by tokens nn for each
   symbol.  The tokens nn are meaningful and searchable.  Each symbol
   defined with wionn is absolutely meaningful and searchable.  Except
   for exact sign matching, the 2-dimensional order of the spatial
   symbols is meaningless and unreliable.

3.1.3.  Compact and Tractable

   The ASCII encoding is ready to deploy with a mature infrastructure.
   The name of a sign with 4 symbols is 60 characters long.  The plain
   text model fully supports the grammar of written ASL with an
   additional 350 characters of basic HTML and CSS.  The stand alone
   JavaScript engine for client side viewing is 1.3 K characters and
   qualifies as a micro script.  This script can be applied to any
   modern browser through a site script or initiated within a browser
   using a bookmark.

   To search for a sign with 4 spatial symbols requires 53 characters of

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   query string and will create around 800 characters of regular
   expression.

3.2.  Visual Image

   The visual image of a logographic sign is a 2-dimension arrangement
   of symbols inside of a sign box.  The sign box has a defined width,
   height, and 2-dimensional center that can be calculated from the
   plain text.  The SVG created by the SignWriting Icon Server is print
   quality.

3.2.1.  TrueType Font

   Ready for experimental use with several open issues.  The entire ISWA
   2010 is included with 2-dimensional arrangements of symbols for the
   logograms.  The TrueType Font utilizes the temporary Unicode
   characters from the Private Use Area.

   There are 4 open issues: the symbols are fuzzy, handshapes overlap
   incorrectly, arrow head/tail fill is missing, and Graphite
   occassionally crashes.

3.2.2.  Server Generated SVG

   The SignWriting Icon Server (open source on GitHub) is able to create
   logographic sign images from the mathematical names.  The SVG is
   grammatically correct and print quality.

   Each SignWriting Icon Server provides the SignWriting Thin Viewer as
   a site script and as a bookmark.  The main SignWriting Icon Server is
   available on Wikimedia Labs and open to all.  The backup SignWriting
   Icon Server is available on SignBank.org.  New SignWriting Icon
   Servers can be created directly from the GitHub source.

3.3.  Character Encoding Scheme

   Encoding schemes define how a character is written as a sequence of
   bytes.  SignWriting Text can use any encoding schemes that supports
   ASCII or Unicode.

   Given a sequence of bytes representing text and a stated character
   encoding scheme, a string of characters is unambiguous and it is easy
   to recreate a sequence of characters as required for plain text.

3.3.1.  ASCII

   Every logographic sign has a mathematical name in ASCII.  ASCII is
   universally supported.  The ASCII names are authoritative and easy to

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   identify.  Searching with regular expressions is 4 times faster in
   ASCII that the equivalent Unicode.

3.3.2.  Unicode

   Every logographic sign has a temporary name of Unicode PUA characters
   for client side font handling.  The use of the Unicode PUA
   demonstrates the necessity and the capability of the proposed
   character set.

3.4.  Coded Character Set

   A character is a fundamental building block of digital data.  A
   character's smallest representation is a binary representation of a
   code point found in a character set.  A string is an ordered sequence
   of characters, which is nothing more that a list of code points.

3.4.1.  x-ISWA-2010

   The x-ISWA-2010 is a 16-bit character set that covers each symbol of
   the ISWA 2010.  A 16-bit code is an integer between 0 and 65,535.
   This type of value is perfect for a primary key for database lookup
   or other integer index.  Through a simple formula, any symbol
   identification can be transformed into a unique 16-bit codepoint.
   Font software using the SQLite fonts rely on the x-ISWA-2010 coded
   character set.

   There are 652 BaseSymbols in the ISWA 2010, numbered from 1 to 652.
   Each BaseSymbol can be visualized on a grid of 6 columns and 16 rows:
   for the 6 fills and 16 rotations.  Each symbol can be identified by 3
   values of BaseSymbol, column and row.

   The codes of the x-ISWA-2010 are assigned starting with the first
   BaseSymbol grid.  The first symbol is given a code value of 1 and the
   codes are incremented down the first column, continue to the next
   column, and continue through the remaining BaseSymbols.

   Given any symbol with:

   BaseSymbol number = n

   Fill = f

   Rotation = r

   code = (n-1)*96 + (f-1)*16 + r

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3.4.2.  x-Binary-SignWriting

   The x-Binary-SignWriting is a 12-bit character set that covers the
   characters of SignWriting Plain Text.  It is possible to write the
   name of a logographic sign with binary data.  This is more of a
   theoretical advantage because we don't write with 12-bit characters.
   This form is most useful for the translation to Private Use Area
   Unicode.

   x-Binary-SignWriting Character

   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Name                           | Token | BSW Codepoint(s) |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Sequence Marker                | A     | B+100            |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | SignBox Marker                 | B     | B+101            |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Left Lane Marker               | L     | B+102            |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Middle Lane Marker             | M     | B+103            |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Right Lane Marker              | R     | B+104            |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Columns 1 thru 6 (fills)       | i     | B+110 - B+115    |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Rows 1 thru 16 (rotations)     | o     | B+120 - B+12F    |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Writing BaseSymbols            | w     | B+130 - B+3AE    |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Detailed Location BaseSymbols  | s     | B+3AF - B+3B6    |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Punctuation BaseSymbols        | P     | B+3B7 - B+3BB    |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Negative Numbers: -250 thru -1 | n     | B+706 - B+7FF    |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+
   | Positive Numbers: 0 thru 249   | n     | B+800 - B+8F9    |
   +--------------------------------+-------+------------------+

                                  Table 2

3.4.3.  x-Character-SignWriting

   The x-Character-SignWriting is a character set for SignWriting in
   Unicode.  Take the characters of the x-Binary-SignWriting coded
   character set and add hexadecimal value FD700.  The characters follow
   the same token patterns as x-Binary-SignWriting defined in
   Section 3.4.2.

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   x-Character-SignWriting Characters

   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Name                           | Token | Unicode PUA       |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Sequence Marker                | A     | U+FD800           |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | SignBox Marker                 | B     | U+FD801           |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Left Lane Marker               | L     | U+FD802           |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Middle Lane Marker             | M     | U+FD803           |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Right Lane Marker              | R     | U+FD804           |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Columns 1 thru 6 (fills)       | i     | U+FD810 - U+FD815 |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Rows 1 thru 16 (rotations)     | o     | U+FD820 - U+FD82F |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Writing BaseSymbols            | w     | U+FD830 - U+FDAAE |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Detailed Location BaseSymbols) | s     | U+FDAAF - U+FDAB6 |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Punctuation BaseSymbols        | P     | U+FDAB7 - U+FDABB |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Negative Numbers: -250 thru -1 | n     | U+FDE06 - U+FDEFF |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+
   | Positive Numbers: 0 thru 249   | n     | U+FDF00 - U+FDFF9 |
   +--------------------------------+-------+-------------------+

                                  Table 3

3.5.  Character Encoding Form

   The character encoding form for SignWriting text are based on ASCII
   or Unicode.  The standard Unicode CEFs of UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32
   can be used.  For ASCII, an additional mapping layer of a lite markup
   is used.

3.5.1.  Lite Markup

   ASCII characters are used to identify structure, symbols, and
   coordinates.  It has proven to be beneficial to use a human readable
   lite markup of ASCII words separated by white space.  Each word
   represents either a signbox or a punctuation.  The lite markup has
   the advantage of a small size without requiring special Unicode or
   XML functions.  Simple regular expressions can quickly and
   efficiently process the lite markup.

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   In the lite markup, the structural markers use the token values as
   the character representation.

   Structural Marker Tokens

   +-------+--------------------+
   | Token | Description        |
   +-------+--------------------+
   | A     | Sequence Marker    |
   +-------+--------------------+
   | B     | SignBox Marker     |
   +-------+--------------------+
   | L     | Left Lane Marker   |
   +-------+--------------------+
   | M     | Middle Lane Marker |
   +-------+--------------------+
   | R     | Right Lane Marker  |
   +-------+--------------------+

                                  Table 4

   In the lite markup, symbols are referenced by symbol keys: the letter
   'S' followed by 5 hexadecimal values, 3 characters for the symbol
   base and 2 characters for the modifiers.

   In the lite markup, there are 2 types of coordinates: regular fixed-
   width coordinates and irregular variable-width coordinates.  Both
   types of coordinates contain 2 numbers separated by the letter 'x'.

   In the lite markup, regular coordinates are always 7 ASCII characters
   long: 3 digits followed by the letter 'x' followed by 3 more digits.
   The numbers range from 250 to 749, with 500 being the center point as
   zero.  So for regular coordinates, the string "250" is equal to the
   number value of -250 and "749" is equal to the number value of 249.
   The loose definition of regular coordinates matches numbers with 3
   digits without specifying the number range.  It has a regular
   expression of /[0-9]{3}x[0-9]{3}/.  The strict definition of regular
   coordinates only matches numbers in the range from 250 to 749.  It
   has a more verbose regular expression of /(2[5-9][0-9]|[3-6][0-9]{2}|
   7[0-4][0-9])x(249|2[5-9][0-9]|[3-6][0-9]{2}|7[0-4][0-9])/.

   In the lite markup, irregular coordinates are variable width.  The
   numbers can be positive or negative.  For negative numbers, the '-'
   minus sign is replaced with the letter 'n'.  The two numbers in the
   coordinate are separated by the letter 'x'.  The center coordinate of
   (0,0) is represented by the string '0x0'.  The coordinate (-250,-250)
   is represented by the string 'n250xn250'.

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   Although signs have a coordinate number limit of -250 to 249,
   irregular coordinates are unbounded when used for display with
   compounds of multiple signs and punctuation.

3.5.2.  Formal SignWriting

   Formal SignWriting is the standard format for storing the names of
   the signs.  It uses a lite markup with the token values for
   structural markers (A, B, L, M, R), symbol keys, and regular
   coordinates.  White space is used to separate words of signs and
   punctuation.

   Regular Expressions of Formal SignWriting

   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Stru | Regular Expression                                         |
   | ctur |                                                            |
   | e    |                                                            |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Symb | S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f]                             |
   | ol   |                                                            |
   |  key |                                                            |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Coor | [0-9]{3}x[0-9]{3}                                          |
   | dina |                                                            |
   | te   |                                                            |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Sign | [BLMR]([0-9]{3}x[0-9]{3})(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f][0 |
   | box  | -9]{3}x[0-9]{3})*                                          |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Term | (A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+)[BLMR]([0-9]{3}x[0-9]{ |
   |      | 3})(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]{3}x[0-9]{3})*      |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Punc | S38[7-9ab][0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]{3}x[0-9]{3}                   |
   | tuat |                                                            |
   | ion  |                                                            |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Text | ((A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+)?[BLMR]([0-9]{3}x[0-9 |
   |      | ]{3})(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]{3}x[0-9]{3})*|S3 |
   |      | 8[7-9ab][0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]{3}x[0-9]{3})(                   |
   |      |   (A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+)?[BLMR]([0-9]{3}x[0- |
   |      | 9]{3})(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]{3}x[0-9]{3})*|  |
   |      |    S38[7-9ab][0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]{3}x[0-9]{3})*              |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+

                                  Table 5

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3.5.3.  Kartesian SignWriting

   Kartesian SignWriting is an alternate encoding form with several
   types of display variants.  It uses a lite markup with the token
   values for structural markers (A, B, L, M, R), symbol keys, and
   irregular coordinates.  White space is used to separate words of
   signs and punctuation.

   Each format uses a lite markup with the token values for structural
   markers (A, B, L, M, R), symbol keys, and irregular coordinates.
   Spaces separate words for signs and punctuation.

   Regular Expressions of Formal SignWriting

   +------------+--------------------------------+
   | Structure  | Regular Expression             |
   +------------+--------------------------------+
   | Symbol key | S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f] |
   +------------+--------------------------------+
   | Coordinate | n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+              |
   +------------+--------------------------------+

                                  Table 6

3.5.3.1.  Raw

   The raw display format string contains the minimal amount of data
   required to represent text.  It defines signs and punctuations.  The
   signboxes are neither centered or sized.  A signbox can occur
   anywhere in the signbox space and the center is not assumed to be the
   coordinate (0,0).  The maximum coordinate for a signbox is unstated.
   Likewise, the punctuation does not contain any placement information.
   Layout is impossible without access to an outside datasource.

   A sign is a combination of a lane maker (BLMR), followed by zero or
   more symbol keys with placement coordinates.

   A punctuation is represented with a single symbol key.

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   Regular Expressions of Kartesian SignWriting Raw

   +-------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
   | Struc | Regular Expression                                        |
   | ture  |                                                           |
   +-------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
   | Signb | [BLMR](S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)*  |
   | ox    |                                                           |
   +-------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
   | Term  | A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+                        |
   | prefi |                                                           |
   | x     |                                                           |
   +-------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
   | Punct | S38[7-9ab][0-5][0-9a-f]                                   |
   | uatio |                                                           |
   | n     |                                                           |
   +-------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
   | Text  | ((A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+)?[BLMR](S[123][0-9a- |
   |       | f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)*|S38[7-9ab][0-5][0-9 |
   |       | a-f])(                                                    |
   |       |   (A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+)?[BLMR](S[123][0-9a |
   |       | -f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)*|                   |
   |       |    S38[7-9ab][0-5][0-9a-f])*                              |
   +-------+-----------------------------------------------------------+

                                  Table 7

3.5.3.2.  Expanded

   The expanded display format string contains sizing information (width
   and height) for every symbol outside of the term prefix.  The maximum
   coordinate for a signbox can be calculated by adding the symbol width
   and height to the symbol placement coordinate.

   For any symbol key in the signbox or for punctuation, the width and
   height is accessed from an outside data source.  The size information
   is written as an irregular coordinate and appended to the symbol key
   through a simple search and replace.

   A sign is a combination of a lane maker (BLMR), followed by zero or
   more symbol keys with sizing information followed by placement
   coordinates.

   A punctuation is represented with a symbol key and a size coordinate

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   Regular Expressions of Kartesian SignWriting Expanded

   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Stru | Regular Expression                                         |
   | ctur |                                                            |
   | e    |                                                            |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Sign | [BLMR](S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]+x[0-9]+xn?[0-9] |
   | box  | +xn?[0-9]+)*                                               |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Term | A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+                         |
   | pref |                                                            |
   | ix   |                                                            |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Punc | S38[7-9ab][0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]+x[0-9]+                       |
   | tuat |                                                            |
   | ion  |                                                            |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Text | ((A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+)?[BLMR](S[123][0-9a-f |
   |      | ]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]+x[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)*|S38[7-9 |
   |      | ab][0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]+x[0-9]+)(                            |
   |      |   (A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+)?[BLMR](S[123][0-9a- |
   |      | f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]+x[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)*|       |
   |      |    S38[7-9ab][0-5][0-9a-f][0-9]+x[0-9]+)*                  |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+

                                  Table 8

3.5.3.3.  Layout

   The layout display format string contains the maximum coordinate as a
   preprocessed value for signboxes and it contains the placement
   coordinate for punctuation.  It is equivalent to the lite markup for
   the regular searching form, but with irregular coordinates.

   A sign is a combination of a lane maker (BLMR), followed by the
   maximum coordinate, followed by zero or more symbol keys with
   placement coordinates.

   A punctuation is a combination of a symbol key followed by a
   placement coordinate.  The center is assumed to be the coordinate
   (0,0).  The maximum coordinate is the additive inverse of the
   placement coordinate.

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   Regular Expressions of Kartesian SignWriting Layout

   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Stru | Regular Expression                                         |
   | ctur |                                                            |
   | e    |                                                            |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Sign | [BLMR]([0-9]+x[0-9]+)(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9 |
   | box  | ]+xn?[0-9]+)*                                              |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Term | A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+                         |
   | pref |                                                            |
   | ix   |                                                            |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Punc | S38[7-9ab][0-5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+                   |
   | tuat |                                                            |
   | ion  |                                                            |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Text | ((A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+)?[BLMR]([0-9]+x[0-9]+ |
   |      | )(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)*|S38[7- |
   |      | 9ab][0-5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)(                       |
   |      |   (A(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f])+)?[BLMR]([0-9]+x[0-9] |
   |      | +)(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)*|      |
   |      |    S38[7-9ab][0-5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)*              |
   +------+------------------------------------------------------------+

                                  Table 9

3.5.3.4.  Panel

   A panel display format string combines multiple signs and
   punctuations into a unit as a defined height column or defined width
   row.  Each signbox contains an offset coordinate that is used to
   position the symbols inside of the signbox.  The offset is added to
   the placement coordinate to determine the position of each symbol on
   the panel.

   Each panel begins with a panel display marker "D" followed by a
   sizing coordinate.  The top-left of the panel is taken to be the
   coordinate (0,0) such that the sizing coordinate can be understood as
   the width and height of the panel as well as the maximum coordinate.

   Each panel can contain several signboxes.  Each signbox has its own
   offset coordinate.  The offset coordinate is used to determine the
   position of the signbox's symbols within the panel.

   A full panel includes the panel prefix with several signboxes with
   offsets.

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   Regular Expressions of Kartesian SignWriting Display

   +-------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
   | Struc | Regular Expression                                        |
   | ture  |                                                           |
   +-------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
   | Signb | _[BLMR]([0-9]+x[0-9]+)(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0-5][0-9a-f]n?[0 |
   | ox    | -9]+xn?[0-9]+)*                                           |
   |  with |                                                           |
   |  offs |                                                           |
   | et    |                                                           |
   +-------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
   | Panel | D[0-9]+x[0-9]+(_[BLMR]([0-9]+x[0-9]+)(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0 |
   |       | -5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)*)*                          |
   +-------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
   | Panel | D[0-9]+x[0-9]+(_[BLMR]([0-9]+x[0-9]+)(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[0 |
   | s     | -5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)*)*(                         |
   |       |  D[0-9]+x[0-9]+(_[BLMR]([0-9]+x[0-9]+)(S[123][0-9a-f]{2}[ |
   |       | 0-5][0-9a-f]n?[0-9]+xn?[0-9]+)*)*)*                       |
   +-------+-----------------------------------------------------------+

                                 Table 10

3.6.  Query Language

   The query language is an ASCII lite markup similar to FSW used to
   search.  A query will compile to a series of regular expression to
   search a section of text to find similar or exact sign matches.
   Modern SignWriting section 9 clearly illustrates the searching
   available and the associated regular expression technology.

   The query string is a concise representation for a much larger set of
   regular expression statements.  The query string permits several
   types of searches for symbols, ranges and spatial relation.

4.  ISWA 2010

   The ISWA 2010 is the abstract symbolset for the x-ISWA-2010 coded
   character set.  The symbols are visually iconic, uniquely identified,
   and organized in a layered hierarchy (Section 4.3).

   The x-ISWA-2010 is a 16-bit coded character used in the font software
   to access the symbol glyphs.

   The x-Binary-SignWriting is a 12-bit coded character set that does
   not directly encode the symbols of the ISWA 2010, but divides each
   symbol into a combination of 3 characters.  The first character

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   represents the base of the symbol.  The next represents the fill of
   the symbol.  The last character represents the rotation of the
   symbol.

4.1.  Grapheme

   The grapheme is the fundamental unit of writing for the SignWriting
   script.  Many graphemes of SignWriting are visually iconic.  The main
   writing graphemes of SignWriting represent a visual conception:
   either hands, movement, dynamics, timing, head, face, trunk, or limb.
   The body concept is a combination of trunk and limb.  The specific
   size and shape of each grapheme is designed to balance and complement
   other graphemes.

   The writing graphemes are extensive and specifically organized for
   written sign language and sign gestures.  The writing graphemes do
   not include the specific graphemes of DanceWriting or the general
   graphemes of MovementWriting.

   The writing graphemes are used in clusters.  A cluster is a spatial
   grouping of graphemes written as a single unit.  The graphemes can
   overlap and obscure graphemes underneath.  A cluster can represents a
   sign of a sign language or a visual performance of a sign gesture.

   Detailed location graphemes are separate from the main writing
   graphemes.  Detailed location graphemes are used individually or
   sequentially.  They represent isolated analysis that is written
   outside the cluster.

   Punctuation graphemes are used when writing sentences.  They are used
   individually, between clusters.

   When written by hand, lines are drawn to form each grapheme.
   Different styles draw different types of lines: either for personal
   taste, speed, or quality.  The main types of handwriting are formal,
   cursive, and shorthand.  Formal handwriting, equivalent to block
   printing, includes defined lines for all grapheme features, specific
   palm facings for hand shapes, and detailed arrow heads and tails.
   Cursive handwriting is more fluid and less detailed.  Handwriting for
   personal use can omit palm facings, generalize arrows, and other
   liberties of personal consumption.  Shorthand is a further reduction
   of detail, written for speed.  Shorthand is a memory aid to a written
   record and should be rewritten soon after the notes were taken.

   Understanding the ratios of size and shape for the graphemes improves
   hand writing.  SignWriting was an exclusively handwritten script for
   7 years before publishing formalized the Block Printing model.

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4.2.  Symbol

   There are 37,811 symbols, each with a unique ID.  A symbol ID is a
   sequence of six formatted numbers of increasing detail.  The first
   dashed number defines the category (11).  The first two dashed
   numbers define the group (11-22).  The first four dashed numbers
   define a base (11-22-333-44).  The fifth number represents the fill
   (55).  The sixth number represents the rotation (66).  A symbol ID is
   a combination of base ID with a valid fill and a valid rotation.  A
   symbol ID has the format "nn-nn-nnn-nn-nn-nn", where each "n" is a
   digit from 0 to 9.

   The fill modifier can best be understood through the palm facing of
   the hand graphemes.  The palm facing is based on planes.  The
   SignWriting script uses two planes: the Front Wall (Frontal Plane)
   and the Floor (Transverse Plane).  There are 6 palm facings.  The
   first three palm facings are parallel with the Front Wall.  The
   second three palm facings are parallel with the Floor.  The reader
   can view the signer from different viewpoints (expressive or
   receptive) and can view the hands from different perspectives (front
   or top), but no matter what the viewpoint or perspective, the first
   three Fills represent the palm facing parallel to the Front Wall and
   the second three Fills represent the palm facing parallel to the
   Floor.

   +------+------------------------------+-----------------------------+
   | Fill | Indicator                    | Meaning                     |
   +------+------------------------------+-----------------------------+
   | 01   | grapheme with white palm     | reader sees palm of hand    |
   |      |                              | parallel Front Wall         |
   +------+------------------------------+-----------------------------+
   | 02   | grapheme with half black     | reader sees side of hand    |
   |      | palm                         | parallel Front Wall         |
   +------+------------------------------+-----------------------------+
   | 03   | grapheme with black palm     | reader sees back of hand    |
   |      |                              | parallel Front Wall         |
   +------+------------------------------+-----------------------------+
   | 04   | grapheme with white palm and | reader sees palm of hand    |
   |      | broken line                  | parallel Floor              |
   +------+------------------------------+-----------------------------+
   | 05   | grapheme with half black     | reader sees side of hand    |
   |      | palm and broken line         | parallel Floor              |
   +------+------------------------------+-----------------------------+
   | 06   | grapheme with black palm and | reader sees palm of hand    |
   |      | broken line                  | parallel Floor              |
   +------+------------------------------+-----------------------------+

                                 Table 11

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   The fill modifier is redefined for the movement arrows of category 2.

   +------+---------------------+--------------------------------------+
   | Fill | Indicator           | Meaning                              |
   +------+---------------------+--------------------------------------+
   | 01   | a grapheme with a   | movement of the right hand           |
   |      | black arrow head    |                                      |
   +------+---------------------+--------------------------------------+
   | 02   | a grapheme with a   | movement of the left hand            |
   |      | white arrow head    |                                      |
   +------+---------------------+--------------------------------------+
   | 03   | a grapheme with a   | spatial overlapping of movement      |
   |      | thin, unconnected   | arrows for the left and right hands  |
   |      | arrow head          | when they move as a unit             |
   +------+---------------------+--------------------------------------+
   | 04   | Irregular arrow     | building blocks for complex movement |
   |      | stems               |                                      |
   +------+---------------------+--------------------------------------+

                                 Table 12

   The rest of the other bases use a fill modifier for grouping and
   visual organization that is meaningful only for a particular base
   symbol or small set.

   The rotation modifier can best be understood through the hand
   symbols.  The first 8 rotations progress 45 degrees counter
   clockwise.  The last 8 rotations are a mirror of the first 8 and
   progress 45 degrees clockwise.  Zero (0) degrees is understood to
   point to the top of the grapheme.

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   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | Rotation | Direction         | Degrees from top |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 01       | Counter Clockwise | 0                |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 02       | Counter Clockwise | 45               |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 03       | Counter Clockwise | 90               |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 04       | Counter Clockwise | 135              |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 05       | Counter Clockwise | 180              |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 06       | Counter Clockwise | 225              |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 07       | Counter Clockwise | 270              |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 08       | Counter Clockwise | 315              |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 09       | Clockwise         | 0                |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 10       | Clockwise         | 45               |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 11       | Clockwise         | 90               |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 12       | Clockwise         | 135              |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 13       | Clockwise         | 180              |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 14       | Clockwise         | 225              |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 15       | Clockwise         | 270              |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+
   | 16       | Clockwise         | 315              |
   +----------+-------------------+------------------+

                                 Table 13

4.3.  Hierarchy

   The symbols of the ISWA 2010 are placed in a layered hierarchy for
   organization and access.  There are 4 levels to the ISWA 2010
   hierarchy: category, group, base, and symbol.

   There are 7 categories.  The first number of the symbol ID identifies
   the category.  The first 5 categories contain writing symbols for use
   in clusters: 1) Hands, 2) Movement, 3) Dynamics & Timing, 4) Head &
   Face, and 5) Body.  The Body category can be broken into 2

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   subcategories: 5.1) Trunk and 5.2) Limb.

   The 6th category is Detailed Location that contains symbols used
   alone or in sequence, always outside the cluster.  The 7th category
   is Punctuation that contains symbols used between clusters for text.

   The 7 Categories of the ISWA 2010

   +-----+-------------+-------------+---------------------------------+
   | Cat | Purpose     | Name        | Description                     |
   +-----+-------------+-------------+---------------------------------+
   | 1   | Writing     | Hands       | Handshapes from over 40 Sign    |
   |     |             |             | Languages are placed in 10      |
   |     |             |             | groups based on the numbers     |
   |     |             |             | 1-10 in American Sign Language. |
   +-----+-------------+-------------+---------------------------------+
   | 2   | Writing     | Movement    | Contact symbols, small finger   |
   |     |             |             | movements, straight arrows,     |
   |     |             |             | curved arrows and circles are   |
   |     |             |             | placed into 10 groups based on  |
   |     |             |             | planes: The Front Wall Plane    |
   |     |             |             | includes movement that is       |
   |     |             |             | "parallel to the front wall"    |
   |     |             |             | and the Floor Plane includes    |
   |     |             |             | movement that is "parallel to   |
   |     |             |             | the floor".                     |
   +-----+-------------+-------------+---------------------------------+
   | 3   | Writing     | Dynamics &  | Dynamics Symbols are used to    |
   |     |             | Timing      | give the "feeling" or "tempo"   |
   |     |             |             | to movement.  They provide      |
   |     |             |             | emphasis on a movement or       |
   |     |             |             | expression, and combined with   |
   |     |             |             | Punctuation Symbols become the  |
   |     |             |             | equivalent to Exclamation       |
   |     |             |             | Points.  The Tension Symbol,    |
   |     |             |             | combined with Contact Symbols,  |
   |     |             |             | provides the feeling of         |
   |     |             |             | "pressure", and combined with   |
   |     |             |             | facial expressions can place    |
   |     |             |             | emphasis or added feeling to an |
   |     |             |             | expression.  Timing symbols are |
   |     |             |             | used to show alternating or     |
   |     |             |             | simultaneous movement.          |
   +-----+-------------+-------------+---------------------------------+
   | 4   | Writing     | Head & Face | Starting with the head and then |
   |     |             |             | from the top of the face and    |
   |     |             |             | moving down.                    |
   +-----+-------------+-------------+---------------------------------+

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   +-----+-------------+-------------+---------------------------------+
   | 5   | Writing     | Body        | Torso movement, shoulders,      |
   |     |             |             | hips, and the limbs are used in |
   |     |             |             | Sign Languages as a part of     |
   |     |             |             | grammar, especially when        |
   |     |             |             | describing conversations        |
   |     |             |             | between people, called Role     |
   |     |             |             | Shifting, or making spatial     |
   |     |             |             | comparisons between items on    |
   |     |             |             | the left and items on the       |
   |     |             |             | right.                          |
   +-----+-------------+-------------+---------------------------------+
   | 6   | Detailed    | Detailed    | Detailed Location symbols used  |
   |     | Location    | Location    | are used alone or in sequence   |
   |     |             |             | outside of the cluster.  They   |
   |     |             |             | may be useful for sorting large |
   |     |             |             | dictionaries, refining          |
   |     |             |             | animation, simplifying          |
   |     |             |             | translation between scripts and |
   |     |             |             | notation systems, and for       |
   |     |             |             | detailed analysis of location   |
   |     |             |             | sometimes needed in linguistic  |
   |     |             |             | research.                       |
   +-----+-------------+-------------+---------------------------------+
   | 7   | Punctuation | Punctuation | Punctuation symbols are used    |
   |     |             |             | when writing complete sentences |
   |     |             |             | or documents in SignWriting.    |
   +-----+-------------+-------------+---------------------------------+

                                 Table 14

   There are 30 groups.  The first 2 dashed numbers in the symbol ID
   identify the group.  The 30 groups can be divided into 3 sets of 10.
   The first ten are hands, category 1.  The second ten are movements,
   category 2.  The third ten are categories 3 thru 7.  In order, 1
   group for the Dynamics & Timing category, 1 for Head, 4 for Face, 1
   for Trunk, 1 for Limb, 1 for Detailed Location, and 1 for
   Punctuation.

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   The 30 groups with symbol ID segment.

   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
   | First Set         | Second Set             | Third Set            |
   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
   | 01-01 Index       | 02-01 Contact          | 03-01 Dynamics &     |
   |                   |                        | Timing               |
   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
   | 01-02 Index       | 02-02 Finger Movement  | 04-01 Head           |
   | Middle            |                        |                      |
   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
   | 01-03 Index       | 02-03 Straight Wall    | 04-02 Brow Eyes      |
   | Middle Thumb      | Plane                  | Eyegaze              |
   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
   | 01-04 Four        | 02-04 Straight         | 04-03 Cheeks Ears    |
   | Fingers           | Diagonal Plane         | Nose Breath          |
   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
   | 01-05 Five        | 02-05 Straight Floor   | 04-04 Mouth Lips     |
   | Fingers           | Plane                  |                      |
   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
   | 01-06 Baby Finger | 02-06 Curves Parallel  | 04-05 Tongue Teeth   |
   |                   | Wall Plane             | Chin Neck            |
   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
   | 01-07 Ring Finger | 02-07 Curves Hit Wall  | 05-01 Trunk          |
   |                   | Plane                  |                      |
   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
   | 01-08 Middle      | 02-08 Curves Hit Floor | 05-02 Limbs          |
   | Finger            | Plane                  |                      |
   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
   | 01-09 Index Thumb | 02-09 Curves Parallel  | 06-01 Detailed       |
   |                   | Floor Plane            | Location             |
   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
   | 01-10 Thumb       | 02-10 Circles          | 07-01 Punctuation    |
   +-------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

                                 Table 15

   There are 652 bases.  The first 4 dashed numbers of a symbol ID
   identify the base.  The 652 bases are divided between the 30 groups.
   For each group, there are less than 60 bases.  The bases are often
   displayed in columns of 10.

   Each base can have up to 96 symbols.  All 6 dashed numbers of the
   symbol ID are required to identify a symbol.  Each symbol is a
   combination of a base, fill, and rotation.  The fill is identified by
   the 5th number of the symbol ID with possible values from 01 to 06.
   The rotation is identified by the 6th number of the symbol ID with
   possible values from 01 to 16.

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4.4.  Combined Character Sequence

   Each symbol of the ISWA 2010 can be expressed with a combination of 3
   characters.  The first character represents the base of the symbol.
   The next character represents the fill of the symbol.  The last
   character represents the rotation of the symbol.

   There are three forms the fill and rotation can use to represent
   their value: a hexadecimal key, an x-Binary-SignWriting character, or
   an x-Character-SignWriting character.

   The x-Binary-SignWriting coded character set uses a 12-bit encoding.
   Code points in this set use a "B+" prefix along with the 3
   hexadecimal digits that represent the value.

   The x-Character-SignWriting coded character set uses the Private Use
   Area of Unicode.  These code points occur on plane 15.  Code points
   in this set use a "U+" prefix along with the 5 hexadecimal digits
   that represent the value.

   The fill value ranges from 1 to 6.  The fill key is 1 less than the
   value and ranges from 0 to 5.

   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   | Fill Value | Key | x-Binary-SignWriting | x-Character-SignWriting |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          1 | 0   | B+110                | U+FD810                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          2 | 1   | B+111                | U+FD812                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          3 | 2   | B+112                | U+FD812                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          4 | 3   | B+113                | U+FD813                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          5 | 4   | B+114                | U+FD814                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          6 | 5   | B+115                | U+FD815                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+

                                 Table 16

   The rotation value ranges from 1 to 16.  The rotation key is written
   in hexadecimal and is equal to 1 less than the value and ranges from
   "0" to "f".

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   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |   Rotation | Key | x-Binary-SignWriting | x-Character-SignWriting |
   |      Value |     |                      |                         |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          1 | 0   | B+120                | U+FD820                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          2 | 1   | B+121                | U+FD821                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          3 | 2   | B+122                | U+FD822                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          4 | 3   | B+123                | U+FD823                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          5 | 4   | B+124                | U+FD824                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          6 | 5   | B+125                | U+FD825                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          7 | 6   | B+126                | U+FD826                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          8 | 7   | B+127                | U+FD827                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |          9 | 8   | B+128                | U+FD828                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |         10 | 9   | B+129                | U+FD829                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |         11 | a   | B+12A                | U+FD82A                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |         12 | b   | B+12B                | U+FD82B                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |         13 | c   | B+12C                | U+FD82C                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |         14 | d   | B+12D                | U+FD82D                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |         15 | e   | B+12E                | U+FD82E                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+
   |         16 | f   | B+12F                | U+FD82F                 |
   +------------+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+

                                 Table 17

   Further, a 16 bit symbol code from the x-ISWA-2010 exists for each of
   the valid combined character sequences.  This relationship can be
   stated as (symbol code = ((base code - 256) * 96) + ((fill value - 1)
   * 16) + rotation value).  The first symbol code is 1 and the last
   valid symbol code is 62,504.

   The first symbol has an ID of "01-01-001-01-01-01" and a symbol code
   of 1.

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      Symbol code 1 = symbol key S10000 = B+130, B+110, B+120 = U+FD830,
      U+FD810, U+FD820.

      Symbol code 1 = ( ( hexdec('100') - 256 ) * 96 ) + ( (
      fill_value(1) - 1 ) * 16 ) + rotation_value(1).

      Symbol code 1 = ( ( 256 - 256 ) * 96 ) + ( ( 1 - 1 ) * 16 ) + 1.

      Symbol code 1 = ( 0 * 96 ) + ( 0 * 16 ) + 1.

      Symbol code 1 = 1.

4.5.  Validity

   Although there are 6 possible fills and 16 possible rotations, not
   every combination of base, fill, and rotation is valid.  Each base
   has a set of valid fills and a set of valid rotation.  These validity
   sets contain one or more values from the defined range.

   For each value, the inclusion in the validity set can be expressed
   with a value of "0" or "1".  For fill values, lining up the digit
   from left to right, will result in a string 6 digits long.  The value
   of the 6 digit number is 2 ^ (value -1).

       +------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+
       | Fill Value | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Binary | Power of 2 |
       +------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+
       |      1     | X |   |   |   |   |   | 100000 |      1     |
       +------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+
       |      2     |   | X |   |   |   |   | 010000 |      2     |
       +------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+
       |      3     |   |   | X |   |   |   | 001000 |      4     |
       +------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+
       |      4     |   |   |   | X |   |   | 000100 |      8     |
       +------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+
       |      5     |   |   |   |   | X |   | 000010 |     16     |
       +------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+
       |      6     |   |   |   |   |   | X | 000001 |     32     |
       +------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+

                                 Table 18

   The value of any fill validity set is equal to the sum of the power
   of 2 for each fill value in the set.  The empty set is invalid and
   has a sum of zero (0).  The full set of all possible fills has a sum
   of 63.

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      +---------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+
      |    Fill Set   | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Binary | Power of 2 |
      +---------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+
      |       {}      |   |   |   |   |   |   | 000000 |      0     |
      +---------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+
      | {1,2,3,4,5,6} | X | X | X | X | X | X | 111111 |     63     |
      +---------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--------+------------+

                                 Table 19

   Each base has a defined validity set for fills.  The "Fills" column
   in the "Bases" section.

   The rotation validity sets have a larger range than the fills.  The
   possible rotation values range from 1 to 16.  The power of 2 numbers
   are 16-bit.

   +-------+--------+------------+
   | Value | Binary | Power of 2 |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |     1 | 2^0    | 1          |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |     2 | 2^1    | 2          |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |     3 | 2^2    | 4          |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |     4 | 2^3    | 8          |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |     5 | 2^4    | 16         |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |     6 | 2^5    | 32         |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |     7 | 2^6    | 64         |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |     8 | 2^7    | 128        |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |     9 | 2^8    | 256        |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |    10 | 2^9    | 512        |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |    11 | 2^10   | 1024       |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |    12 | 2^11   | 2048       |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |    13 | 2^12   | 4096       |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |    14 | 2^13   | 8192       |
   +-------+--------+------------+

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   +-------+--------+------------+
   |    15 | 2^14   | 16384      |
   +-------+--------+------------+
   |    16 | 2^15   | 32768      |
   +-------+--------+------------+

                                 Table 20

   The value of a rotation validity set is the summation of the power of
   2 numbers.  The minimum summation is 1.  The largest possible
   summation is 65,535 where all 16 rotations are valid.

   Each base has a defined validity set for rotations.  The "Rotations"
   column in the "Bases" section.

   Interestingly enough, there are only 12 possible validity sets in the
   ISWA 2010.

   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   |   Sum | Binary           | Set                                    |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   |     1 | 100000           | {1}                                    |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   |     2 | 010000           | {2}                                    |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   |     3 | 110000           | {1, 2}                                 |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   |     7 | 111000           | {1, 2, 3}                              |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   |    15 | 111100           | {1, 2, 3, 4}                           |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   |    31 | 111110           | {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}                        |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   |    63 | 111111           | {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}                     |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   |   187 | 11011101         | {1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8}                     |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   |   255 | 11111111         | {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}               |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   |   511 | 1111111110000000 | {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}            |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   | 48059 | 1101110111011101 | {1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14,  |
   |       |                  | 16}                                    |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+
   | 65535 | 1111111111111111 | {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,    |
   |       |                  | 12, 13, 14, 15, 16}                    |
   +-------+------------------+----------------------------------------+

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                                 Table 21

5.  SignPuddle Standard

   The SignPuddle Standard for SignWriting text is nearing a stable and
   fully functional version 1.

5.1.  Licenses

5.1.1.  Open Font License

   Our font software is available under SIL's Open Font License.

5.1.2.  Creative Commons

   Our reference material is licensed under Creative Commons
   attribution, share alike (by-sa).

5.1.3.  GPL

   The current open source projects are licensed under the GPL 2 for
   MediaWiki and GPL 3 for the general software on Github.  Any
   contributions to the open source code must agree to a possible
   relicense in the future under a BSD like license.

5.1.4.  BSD

   After the financial issues [13] of the Center for Sutton Movement
   Writing have been addressed, the open source projects will relicensed
   under a more open and free BSD-like license, such as the MIT License.

5.2.  Infrastructure

5.2.1.  International SignWriting Alphabet Fonts

   The International SignWriting Alphabet 2010 (ISWA 2010) Font
   Reference [1] is a product of the collaboration between SignWriting
   inventor, Valerie Sutton, and SignWriting encoder Stephen E Slevinski
   Jr. Special thanks to Adam Frost's excellent work on the SVG
   refinement and more.

   The ISWA 2010 fonts have been stable since their initial release on
   October 20th, 2010.

   Valerie Sutton

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   o  hand crafted and organized 30K plus individual glyphs

   o  created a 2 dimension PNG of 3 colors for each

   o  named each individual glyph with 6 degrees of significance

   o  font name: ISWA 2010 Sutton

   Steve Slevinski

   o  counted and numbered the glyphs

   o  created mathematical names

   o  analyzed PNGs for line and fill

   o  refactored glyphs - font name: ISWA 2010 PNG Standard

   o  extended glyphs - font names: ISWA 2010 PNG Inverse, Shadow,
      Colorized

   o  traced glyphs - font names: ISWA 2010 SVG Line Trace, Shaddow
      Trace, Smooth, and Angular

   o  refactored and extended Adam's SVG work - font name: ISWA 2010 SVG
      Refinement

   Adam Frost

   o  manually traced each and every glyph that could not be
      automatically rotated

   o  font name: ISWA 2010 SVG Refinement

   o  physically performed and photographed every hand shape

   o  font name: ISWA 2010 Hand Photo

   o  consulted with Valerie in places of ambiguity

   o  found the Facial Irregularity, documented in the ISWA 2010 Errata

5.2.2.  SignWriting Icon Server

   The SignWriting Icon Server create SVG and PNG images and queries
   data collections using an open API.  The image creation is stable and
   fully implemented.  The API is currently under construction with only
   an initial level of support.

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   The main server is available on Wikimedia Labs [4] for all
   SignWriting projects.

   A backup server is available on SignBank [3].

   Additional SignWriting Icon Servers can be created directly from the
   GitHub source.

5.2.3.  SignWriting Thin Viewer

   The SignWriting Thin Viewer uses JavaScript to wrap the sign names
   with basic HTML and CSS to fully supports the grammar of written ASL.
   This script can be applied to any modern browser through a site
   script or initiated within a browser using a bookmark.

5.2.3.1.  CSS Text Layout

   The SignWriting Thin Viewer use CSS to make SignWriting text behave
   more like logographic text.  It uses simple math for layout.  It has
   center data points for selecting text to copy and for searching text
   on a page.  It uses images for individual signs and punctuation.  It
   makes SignWritng text act more like text.

   The current working prototype uses 12 CSS rules: 4 that cover every
   cluster, 4 that cover the data string, and 4 custom layout values for
   each cluster.

   Common

   o  position: relative;

   o  background-repeat: no-repeat;

   o  background-origin: content-box;

   o  padding: 10px;

   Data Span

   o  display: table-cell;

   o  vertical-align: middle;

   o  font-size:0%;

   o  height: inherit;

   Individual

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   o  width: ?px

   o  height: ?px

   o  left: ?px

   o  background-image: url(ht..

   The width, height, and left values are easy to calculate using the
   character string.  No need to access a database or wait for the image
   server.

   The background-image must link to a SignWriting Icon Server.  CSS
   rules will directly effect the '''url''' affecting the style of the
   rich text.  Specify the looks of Headings 1 thru 6, bold, italic, or
   to indicate URL links.

5.3.  Compatibility

   SignPuddle Online, ASL Wikipedia Project, SignTyp, SignWriter Studio,
   the DELEGS Editor, and more.

5.3.1.  SignPuddle Online

   SignPuddle Online [14] is the current home of the international
   community of online writers of the SignWriting Script.  Online tools
   make it possible to create SignWriting dictionaries and documents
   directly on the web.  Each collection is freely available as a small
   XML file [15].  Dozens of sign languages from around the world are
   represented.  Each language can have several collections of
   SignWriting.

5.3.2.  Wikimedia Labs

   SignWriting has an open project on Wikimedia Labs [16].  The ASL
   Wikipedia Project [17] is in full swing.  The Libras Wikipedia
   Project [18] may start soon.

   In general, Wikimedia Labs creates virtual computers running Linux.
   They use a special tool called Puppet to configure the virtual
   servers.  Wikimedia Labs allows you to create, manage, and analyze
   the virtual servers through a MediaWiki based application.  Wikimedia
   Labs is deeply integrated but not always configured properly or
   documented.

   Wikimedia Labs has created a project for SignWriting.  I am a super
   user on Wikimedia Labs.  I administer the SignWriting project.  I can
   create virtual servers at will, each is called an instance.  I have 2

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   instances running.  The first is "ase10", the 10th server I created
   before I had everything properly configured and installed.  I created
   "ase11" when I was trying to fix the catastrophic crash of the ASL
   Wikipedia. "ase11" is a basic server without MediaWiki or the SWMP.

   For the public to view anything on Wikimedia Labs, you must use an IP
   from a limited pool.  Each project has a limit of 0 IPs when it is
   first created.  This number can be increased according to need.

   I have 2 public IPs for SignWriting.  The first is used by the ASL
   Wikipedia Project and points to "ase10".  The second is currently
   used for the SignWriting Icon Server [4] installation for Wikimedia
   projects.

   There is no BZS virtual server running on Wikimedia Labs.  This needs
   to be created by a skilled and experienced Linux administrator
   through the Wikimedia Labs environment.  BZS is pointing to the
   SignWriting Icon Server on "ase11".

   You do not need a public IP to start development on Wikimedia Labs,
   only to be viewed by the public.

5.3.3.  SignTyp

   This standard is being integrated with the SignTyp linguistic coding
   system developed by Rachel Channon through an NSF grant.

      Notation Systems [19] by Harry van der Hulst and Rachel Channon.

      Why dynamic features? [20] by Harry van der Hulst and Rachel
      Channon.

      Transcription systems as input to coding systems: SignWriting &
      SignTyp [21] by Charles Butler and Rachel Channon.

5.3.4.  SignWriter Studio

   SignWriter Studio [22] is a Windows-only compatible application by
   Jonathan Duncan.  It has an alternate symbol selection technique.
   According to Valerie Sutton, it illustrates a unique insight into the
   hand shapes of the ISWA.

   Jonathan Duncan writes:

      SignWriter Studio has 4 ways to get the basic symbol base, and 3
      ways to modify the selected base.

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      1) Select the base symbol from a complete list of base symbols
      organized in a tree view 2) Search for a hand symbol in hand
      search section by hand feature. 3) Select a symbol already present
      in the signbox. 4) Select a symbol from a Favorites section.

      Then one of three chooser to define the fill and rotation will
      become available. 1)The hand chooser. 2)The arrow chooser. 3)The
      general chooser.

      The Hand chooser is to quickly find the symbol for a certain,
      hand, plain(wall or floor), palm facing and rotation.  The Hand
      Chooser also extends add a fourth palm facing to logically show
      all possible symbols in their most common uses.  This chooser
      resembles the instruction manual explaining the use of hand
      shapes.

      The Arrow Chooser is to quickly find arrows for a certain hand,
      plain(wall or floor) and rotation.This chooser resembles the
      instruction manual explaining the use of arrows.

      The General Chooser is for symbols for which the two previous
      chooser do not work well and gives a grouped list of symbols for
      the base group.

5.3.5.  DELEGS Online

   The DELEGS Editor [23] from the University of Hamburg and C1 WPS GmbH
   in Germany is designed for Deaf Education.  It is a tool for writing
   translation texts between spoken and signed languages.

   Spoken language text is used to display horizontal SignWriting Text
   from left to right.  The spoken language can appear beneath the sign
   or it can be hidden.

6.  Unicode Integration

   SignWriting Text is integrated with Unicode in the Private Use Area.

6.1.  Private Use Area Font Characters

   The Unicode PUA is a simple shift of the x-Binary-SignWriting coded
   character set.  Each code is increased by decimal value 1,038,080
   which is FD700 in hex.  An experimental TrueType Font converts the
   Unicode PUA to create the visual images.

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6.2.  Proposal

   A shift of the 12 bit characters of x-Binary-SignWriting by 1D700
   will use the range U+1D800 to U+1DFFF, using eight 8-bit rows of
   Unicode Plane 1 known as the the SMP: Supplementary Multilingual
   Plane.  These rows occur inside an unassigned section of the
   Notational systems.

   These are the characters being used by the community.  The gap
   between the ISWA 2010 symbols and the number sections illustrates two
   truths.  First, the entire Sutton MovementWriting family will be
   encoded.  Second, it doesn't really matter where the numbers are
   placed, perhaps plane 14.

   The number characters encode the ruler principle with characters.
   The ruler principle is built in automatically for scripts written
   sequentially in one dimension.  The number characters are needed for
   2-dimensional logograms, where the spatial relationship between
   symbols is explicitly stated with X,Y Cartesian coordinates.  Number
   characters may be a useful concept for other scripts and notations to
   support 2-dimensional script processing.

   The entire set of characters is used for a plain text model of a
   2-dimension logographic script with freeform placement of symbols.

   Future additions to the ISWA 2010 will include essential hand shapes
   and new mouth shapes.  New characters will extend the SignWriting
   Text model with minimal complications.

   Future proposals will include the rest of the Sutton MovementWriting
   System.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This section provides guidance to the Internet Assigned Numbers
   Authority (IANA) regarding registration of values related to the code
   spaces of the Center for Sutton Movement Writing, in accordance with
   [RFC2978]. protocol, in accordance with BCP 26, [RFC2434].

   See IANA: http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2978.txt

   Conforms with RFC 2040.

   There are three name spaces for the Center for Sutton Movement
   Writing that require definition and extension: x-ISWA-2010, x-Binary-
   SignWriting, and x-Character-SignWriting

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   SignWriting Text is an international standard with several coded
   character sets.  These sets may require additional hand and mouth
   shapes.

   The following terms are used here with the meanings defined in BCP
   26: "name space", "assigned value", "registration".

   The following policies are used here with the meanings defined in BCP
   26: "Private Use", "First Come First Served", "Expert Review",
   "Specification Required", "IETF Consensus", "Standards Action".

8.  Security Considerations

   None.

URIs

   [1]   <http://signpuddle.net/iswa>

   [2]   <https://github.com/Slevinski/swis>

   [3]   <http://signbank.org/swis>

   [4]   <http://swis.wmflabs.org>

   [5]   <http://www.signwriting.org/lessons/cursive/curs007.html>

   [6]   <http://movementwriting.org/csmw/>

   [7]   <http://www.signwriting.org/library/history/hist005.html>

   [8]   <http://www.signwriting.org/lessons/cursive/curs002.html>

   [9]   <http://signpuddle.net/wiki/index.php/SignWriting_Script>

   [10]  <http://www.signwriting.org/lessons/cursive>

   [11]  <http://www.signwriting.org/lessons/cursive/shorthand>

   [12]  <http://www.signwriting.org/lessons/cursive/byhand5.html>

   [13]  <http://signpuddle.net/wiki/index.php/The_Wall>

   [14]  <http://signpuddle.org>

   [15]  <http://signbank.org/signpuddle2.0/data/spml>

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   [16]  <https://labsconsole.wikimedia.org/wiki/
         Nova_Resource:Signwriting>

   [17]  <http://ase.wikipedia.wmflabs.org>

   [18]  <http://bzs.wikipedia.wmflabs.org>

   [19]  <http://homepage.uconn.edu/~hdv02001/Articles-pdfs/
         131%20-%20Notation%20Systems.pdf>

   [20]  <http://www.purdue.edu/tislr10/pdfs/
         van%20der%20Hulst%20Channon.pdf>

   [21]  <http://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs7/
         sw0623_TISLR_2010_SignWriting_SignTyp_Poster.pdf>

   [22]  <http://signwriterstudio.com>

   [23]  <http://www.delegs.com/DelegsPage>

   [24]  <http:// http://signpuddle.net/wiki/index.php/MSW>

   [25]  <http://www.linkedin.com/groups/
         Searching-3-digit-number-simple-
         1066587.S.85595980?qid=9cb1768b-5413-4f7f-92b5-fbef2c243df8>

   [26]  <http://signpuddle.net/wiki/index.php/
         SignWriting_Text_Reference>

   [27]  <http://signpuddle.net/wiki/index.php/MSW:Mathematical_Model>

Appendix A.  Modern SignWriting

   This Internet Draft is in complete agreement with the theory and
   example workbook released on January 12th, 2012 called Modern
   SignWriting [24].

   Modern SignWriting has example text and concretely defines the
   processes available.  It fully documented the symbol encoding.  The
   query language is by far the most important aspect of this design.
   Modern SignWriting section 9 clearly illustrates the searching
   available and the associated regular expression technology.  I
   discussed the model on the Regular Expressions Experts list of Linked
   In the end of 2011 [25].

   Modern SignWriting is now part of the SignWriting Text Reference [26]
   and available in wiki form and PDF.

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   Entire sections of the Modern SignWriting document will be included
   in this I-D as progresses is made.

Appendix B.  Cartesian SignWriting

   Cartesian SignWriting is the name of a script encoding model for
   SignWriting Block Printing.  The mathematical model is defined by the
   SignWriting Text Language [27].  This language uses formal words to
   name terms, signs, and punctuation.

   Formal structures of logographic sign are mixed with punctuation to
   form text.  Each logographic sign is a 2-dimensional arrangement of
   symbols defined with cartesian coordinates.

   Cartesian SignWriting is a heuristic model.  The first prototypes
   were created in 2008.  Through trial and error, the model was
   successively refactored to reduce the complexity and the computation
   cost of the implementations.  The model has been optimized for common
   usage and processing.

B.1.  Signbox

   Cartesian SignWriting uses coordinate based symbol placement.

   Each logographic sign exists on its own 2-dimensional canvas.  Each
   point on the canvas is identified with an X and a Y coordinate.  Each
   canvas has a defined center.  Formal numbers range from -250 to 249.
   Informal number have no limit.

              Y Axis
                | -
                |
                |
                |
                |
                |
   X Axis       |
     -----------+------------
     -          |           +
                |
                |
                |
                |
                |
                | +

   Symbols are placed on the canvas with coordinates that represent the

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   top-left of the symbol image.

B.2.  Temporal Order

   A term is a specialized sign that uses a sequential prefix before the
   2-dimensional signbox.

   A sequence is a list of writing symbols and/or detailed location
   symbols.  A valid sequence must contain at least one symbol and can
   not contain punctuation.  A sequence is an optional sign prefix used
   to define a temporal order.

   The temporal order of a sign is distinct from the visual cluster.
   Neither structure can be dirived from the other automatically.  It
   requires human intelligence to correctly create the sequence from the
   signbox contents.

   There are several theories on the best way to structure a sequence.
   The most productive is based on the SignSpelling Sequence theory of
   Valerie Sutton.  A sequence is structured as a series of starting
   handshapes followed by optional movements, transitional handshapes,
   movement, and end handshapes.  Only symbols from category 1 (hands)
   and category 2 (movement) should be used in this first section.  The
   last section of the sequence should contain symbols of dynamics &
   timing, head & face, or body: categories 3, 4, and 5.

   Detailed location symbols from category 6 can be used in a sequence,
   but are rarely (if ever) needed for a sequence in general writing.

B.3.  Logograph of Logographs

   Cartesian SignWriting text uses a series of canvases, each with a
   unique coordinate space.  A higher level coordinate space can be
   created to represent an entire panel of SignWriting Text.  Either a
   column of vertical writing or a row of horizontal.  The higher level
   coordinate space has an origin of (0,0).  For columns, the panels
   share a common height.  For rows, the panels share a common width.

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                X Axis
       (0,0)     width
         +-------------------
         |
    Y  h |
       e |
    A  i |
    x  g |
    i  h |
    s  t |
         |
         |

   The mathematics of the panel is defined in Modern SignWriting,
   section 10.D Variant Display Form: Panel.  The SignWriting Icon
   Server contains the functions required to convert a section of
   SignWriting Text into a series of panels.  This can be useful for
   presentation.

   The development of the rich text model defines a higher level
   logograph with manipulation of the DOM using CSS rules.

Appendix C.  Theory of SignWriting Grammar and Encoding

   Sign language is vastly different than spoken language.  Instead of
   the sequential sounds of the voice, there is a 3 dimensional space
   with simultaneous action.  The SignWriting Script creates
   2-dimensional writing that is visually icon and full of featural
   information.  This is true on the symbol level and on the sign level.
   A symbol represents phonemic information and is full of featural
   information to better understand the phonemes of the symbols.  A sign
   is a 2-dimensional arrangement of symbols and is full of featural
   information to better understand the morphemes of the signs.

   The 2 families of the SignWriting Script are Handwriting and Block
   Printing.  The Handwriting family integrates with diacritic marks.
   The Block Printing family uses 2-dimensional placement with overlap
   and overlay.

   Both of these families identify features in the writing they produce.
   Block Printing uses more features and Handwriting often uses less.

   The Block Printing family is aimed at the needs of the reader and the
   publisher.  The Block Printing family is ready to standardize with a
   fully developed model.

   The Handwriting family is concerned with the needs of the writer.

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   The purpose is not to recreate the iconic symbols of the
   International SignWriting alphabet exactly by hand, but the purpose
   is to enable the writer to quickly write notes on paper or
   chalkboard.  Handwriting often drops features of the SignWriting
   Script for efficiency and speed.  If too many features are dropped,
   the writing may loose it's clarity over time as the writer is
   distanced from the writing.  This is common for Shorthand.

C.1.  Logographic Sign

   A sign is a variably-size logographic word.  It is a 2-dimensional
   combination of symbols inside of a signbox with a tight bounding box
   and an explicit center.

C.2.  Punctuation and Text

   Punctuation separates signs into structured sentences.  A punctuation
   symbol is always used alone and should not be used in a sign.  Line
   breaks should not occur before punctuation.

C.3.  Terms

   A term is a logographic sign with an optional prefix.  The prefix is
   a sequential list of symbols that identify temporal order and
   additional analysis.  Terms are special signs that are above the
   standard noise of SignWriting Text.  The query language of Formal
   SignWriting support searching for general signs with the letter "Q"
   and searching for terms with the letters "QT".

C.4.  Lanes

   When written vertically, SignWriting can use 3 different lanes: left,
   middle, and right.  The middle lane is the default lane and
   punctuation is always used in the middle lane.  No matter the lane,
   the center of a sign is aligned with the center of the lane.

   For body weight shifts to one side or the other, the center of the
   cluster is aligned with a fixed horizontal offset from the middle
   lane into either the left or right lane.

   The left and right lanes are used to represent body weight shifts and
   are represented by a horizontal offset from the middle lane.  Body
   weight shifts are important to the grammar of sign languages, used
   for two different grammatical aspects: 1) role shifting during sign
   language storytelling, and 2) spatial comparisons of two items under
   discussion.  One "role" or "item" is placed on the right side of the
   body (right lane), and the other on the left side of the body (left
   lane), and the weight shifts back and forth between the two, with the

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   narrator in the middle (middle lane).

C.5.  Modes

   The most common writing mode is vertical.

   Vertical Writing Mode

                 <-- width / extent -->

                        top side/
                       start side
                 +--------------------+                  A
                 |  ----> Block flow  |                  |
                 |                    |                  |
                 |  | i b    T F      |                  |
     left side/  |  | n a    e l      |  right side/  height/
     head side   |  | l s    x o      |  foot side    measure
                 |  V i e    t w      |                  |
                 |    n               |                  |
                 |    e               |                  |
                 |                    |                  |
                 +--------------------+                  V
                       bottom side/
                         end side

                                 Figure 1

      downward inline base

      rightward block flow

      vertical translate by word

      variable dimensions of words

      center of word aligns with the central baseline

      variable over and under values from central baseline

   The horizontal writing mode can loose or obfuscate important
   grammatical information, but is still useful, especially for
   translations with a spoken language.

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   Horizontal Writing Mode

      ----> inline base

      | B f      Text
      | l l      Flow
      | o o
      v c w
        k

                                 Figure 2

C.6.  Layout

   The SignPuddle Standard for SignWriting Text uses a freeform layout
   with cartesian coordinates for absolute positioning.  Additional
   layout options are included and explored.

   The main issue of layout is how the writer will use the system.  The
   balance between complexity and usability from the writer's
   perspective is of primary importance.

   The second issue of layout involve comparison.  Signs can quickly be
   scanned for the symbols used; however, the relative position of the
   symbols require an analysis of the layout.  The different layouts
   offer different approaches for evaluation.

   The third issues of layout involves variability.  There are two types
   of variability.  The first, inter-personal variability, occurs when
   writers pick different symbols and different details.  Inter-personal
   variability is part of the writing system that layout can not
   resolve.  The second, intra-personal variability, occurs when writers
   use the same symbols, but in slightly different positions.  With
   layout choices, it is possible to reduce the intra-personal
   variability, but this reduction may harm the writing system by
   imposing too many restrictions on the writer.

   A fourth issues of layout involves elegance and beauty.  Some may
   consider one type of layout to be superior to another based on
   subjective personal opinions.  SignWriting is a unique script.  The
   ultimate choice of layout should be based on the writer's experience,
   comparison, and variability.

C.6.1.  Freeform

   With freeform layout, the writer decides what symbols to use and the
   exact symbol position.  The freeform layout offers the greatest
   flexibility for the writer and the greatest intra-personal

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   variability.

   Cartesian coordinates specify X and Y coordinates for the top, left
   of the symbol glyph.  The coordinates of the symbols relate to the
   center of the canvas.  The Cartesian Coordinate system is a more
   practical choices for computer processing because the equations of
   layout and comparison are eaiser.  This is the current method for
   writing.  The writer is presented with a canvas and positions each
   symbol independently.

   Polar coordinates specify an angle and a distance from the center of
   the sign to the center of each symbol.  Polar coordinates require the
   pythagorean therum and the slope equation for standard processing.

C.6.2.  Restricted

   It is possible to impose restrictions on symbol placement thereby
   limiting the intra-personal variability of sign spellings.

   For generic restrictions, instead of allowing any coordinates, it may
   be possible to limit the options.  For example, with polar
   coordinates, only allow specific angles and specific distances.  This
   has not been evaluated.

   For specific restrictions it may be possible to perform a statistical
   analysis of the symbols used to come up with a limited number of
   attachment points around each symbol and a small list of predefined
   distances between symbols.  This information would be symbol specific
   and could greatly reduce the intra-personal variability if
   successfully implemented.

C.6.3.  Non-form

   Some would argue that the writer should not determine the form of a
   sign, but should input linguistic analysis and let the layout/font
   manager determine the best representation for the written sign.  This
   would change the script from a writing system into computer aided
   design, requiring concepts that are not part of the script and are
   not part of the writer's thought processes.  The idea would make for
   an interesting project, but it is not about encoding SignWriting.

C.7.  Positioning

   Any of the above layout options have two choices for positioning:
   absolute or relative.

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C.7.1.  Absolute

   The absolute position of each symbol relates to the center of the
   sign.  The freeform layout section above is defined using absolute
   positioning.

C.7.2.  Relative

   A relative position relates the symbol position according to other
   symbols.  This could be defined with a tree structure or a more
   complicated linked list.  One or more root symbols could initialize
   the sign and other symbols would build from the roots.  The
   restricted layout of polar coordinates is defined above using
   relative positioning.

   The viability and usability of relative positioning is unknown and
   has not been investigated.

Author's Address

   Stephen E Slevinski Jr
   SignPuddle

   Email: slevin@signpuddle.net

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