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On 8/25/12 6:42 AM, MARIA GALEA wrote: > seems like you are skipping over the Unicode barrier! :) Hi Maria, Unicode is an important goal for SignWriting. Trying to balance the SignWriting requirements with the Unicode reality has been an interesting experience. The middle of last year, we were of a single mind for how to encode SignWriting. This year, there are two efforts, each with different foundational ideas. First Approach - Encoding SignWriting so that SignWriting specific processing is easy to perform. Second Approach - Encoding SignWriting so that SignWriting can leverage as much of the existing Unicode architecture as possible. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. I've been working on the first approach. For the ASL Wikipedia Project, we decided to move ahead using a custom encoding which can use either ASCII or Unicode PUA. So even without the approval of the Unicode consortium we are able to use Unicode right now. In a few years, if the Unicode PUA encoding is useful and popular, we can approach Unicode again with a much stronger case. Efforts are also under way for the second approach. I am not directly involved in this second approach, but it is being worked on. I look forward to seeing what they are able to do. Regards, -Steve