William Overington

Thus far in this thread are designs that hopefully look good as art on a printed page. Maybe one day the designs will feature in an exhibition in an art gallery. Yet how can they be used in practice in electronic communication? Conventionally, such new designs could be encoded by me, just on my say so, into one of the Private Use Areas of the Universal Character Set. That would allow them to be used in many ways much like the characters that are already officially encoded into the Universal Character Set. Certainly fine for producing PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, however not so good for communication with others using email and for putting on web pages. This is because, although I can encode my own new designs, just on my say so, into one of the Private Use Areas of the Universal Character Set, everyone else has that opportunity too, and the encodings might, and very often do, overlap. So, although a Private Use Area encoding can be used for communication if done with care to understand for which particular encoding each Private Use Area character is being used, and can be very useful, it has its limitations. So I have devised my own encoding space for these abstract emoji-compatible characters, yet in a manner such that it can be used with existing technology. In OpenType font technology there is a technique known as glyph substitution. There are various types of glyph substution. The one I use here is ligature substitution using the liga table of an OpenType font. In a typical conventional use of the liga table, a line of code is included in the liga table that has the name of two or more characters on the left side of a statement and the glyph name of a glyph within the font on the right side of the statement. If the liga table is in use by the text displaying system that is using the font, then the statements in the liga table are obeyed. The effect of obeying a statement in the liga table is to not display the glyphs for all of the characters that are listed at the left side and instead of them display the glyph that is at the right side. So, for example, sub c t -> c_t; means that if the text in a document has a letter c followed by a letter t, then neither of them are displayed but the glyph named c_t is displayed. So if one wants to display a word using a ct ligature character such as was found in some metal type founts, one could in desktop publishing use an OpenType font that has a glyph for a ct ligature in it and the statement in the liga table will facilitate that being possible. However, there is no technology requirement that the substituted glyph is actually related to the characters for which it is substituted. In typical use in text, the percent sign is usually used after digits and is not usually followed by digits. So i decided that my encoding space for these abstract emoji-compatible characters could be used within ordinary text, text that might indeed include emoji, by encoding each of them as a percent character followed by two or more ordinary digits. For examples, %11 %12 %35 %791 So I need an encoding for each of the twnty-seven designs for verbs. Suppose that I have the code for each verb begin with %5 and then add two digits. First consider the one or two vertical blue lines. They could be thought of as being a binary represenation of 1, 2 or 3, a line being a binary 1, the absence of a line being binary 0. So %51, %52, and %53 Now consider the horizontal lines. I choose to have the binary number read downwards, and that gives 1, 2, or 3, so place that in the third digit column of the code number. Considering the in the square horizontal line as adding 4 to the code in the third digit column of the code number and the in the square verical line as adding 4 in the second digit coumn of the code number, then there are twenty-seven designs each with a code number directly related to the design. Indeed, if I were to allow the two possible in the square lines to be simultaneously present, there would be another nine characters, though the two inner lines would overlap to form a larger shape, which may or may not be desirable, so not add those in at present. I realize that that does leave the possibility of using codes with any of zero, eight, or nine in either or both of the second and third digit columns of the code number for other purposes. So twenty-seven designs for characters, with, given the encoding rules, the code number deducible from the design, and the design deducible from the code number. Also, by using my own encoding space, the characters can, once the meanings are defined, be used straightaway. William

Here are the design rules that I have devised for my designing of the designs for abstract emoji-compatible characters. Each design is in a seven by seven grid of forty-nine cells. Each design may only include straight lines, corners, and T junctions. There are no crossovers. Each design may be in one or more colours, yet the designs must be distinctly different from each other if printed in just monochrome, and may be used in monochrome if so desired. Each design must still maintain its distinctiveness if mirrored horizontally as some languages are written right to left, the distinctiveness still existing even if left-to-right text and right-to-left text are mixed together. There are no solid filled areas. This is so that a design can be drawn using pencil and paper, where the lines are thinner and the white spaces relatively larger. Each design must be in one piece. It is helpful to think of this as if a design were made as a solid work of art to go on a wall, then it must be in one piece. Each design must have at least one inked cell in each row and at least one inked cell in each column. Each design has no place where a two by two block of cells consists of two inked cells and two uninked cells and the inked cells meet only at a point in the middle of the two by two block. The designs must not depend upon precise drawing of such things as the placement along a line of a T junction. This is so that if someone is drawing the design using a pencil and paper, if there is a T junction from a line, then as long as it is a T junction that is somewhere along the line, though not at a corner, then the meaning is still conveyed. The designs for related characters should, where possible, have some parts in common, so that their relationship is more easily recognized by a human. I coined a new word, ikmathic, based on the classical Greek words for adequate and for information that conveys here the idea that the pencil on paper drawing is ikmathic to the printed design if it contains adequate information for the particular purpose. William

I started with an A4 landscape orientation document, at 300 dots per inch, working in pixels. I used the Rectangle tool and the Transform panel to produce a rectangle with no stroke, 500 pixels wide and 100 pixels high, and coloured it orange r=255, g=192, b=0. I then made a copy of the filled rectangle and moved it down the canvas. I then made another copy of the filled rectangle and changed its height and width, so as to produce the left side of the large orange square. I then copied that rectangle and moved it to the right, thus producing the orange square. I then made a copy of the vertical rectangle at the left, coloured it blue r=0, g=0, b=255, shortened it to 300 pixels in length and then moved it upwards by 200 pixels. That blue rectangle was then copied and the copy moved right by 20 pixels. Then the horizontal blue bars were produced by copying, changing the size, and moving, as appropriate. Thus completing the design at the left side of the top row. I then grouped the design, copied the grouped design and moved the copy a thousand pixels to the right, ungrouped it, then added the inner blue bar. Grouping that design when completed. A similar process for the glyph at the right of the upper row. I then produced the lower row by making copies from the upper row, moving each copy down a thousand pixels, ungrouping, then deleting some blue rectangles to show examples. There needs to be at least one blue external vertical blue rectabngle and one blue external horizontal blue rectangle so that the glyph goes to the limits of its design area. Please note that if needed, another twenty-seven designs could, in principle, be produced by a vertical mirroring of the present designs. However, more designs cannot be produced by horizontally mirroring the present designs as the designs must e uniquely repreentable whether used with left to right text or right to left text. Please note that the designs, whilst presented in a two-colour format, are designed such they would all be distinguishable in a monochrome display. The png file uploaded to this thread is at one fifth of full size both horixontally and vertically. I used A4 so that I could also export a PDF document ar A4 size and then upload it to an online virual print shop so that I can get some prints on 350 gsm card, delivered to me by Royal Mail. William

That reminds me of a lecturer who bragged that, when asked a question by a student, he had told a student to "look in your notes". Later, in an (informal, lunchtime) discussion over savimg money I suggested that an A board, as found on the pavement outside a restaurant, with "look in your notes" chalked on it would save money. Brought the house down with laughter. William

But it is no skin off the nose of the desktop users if someone else gets a good deal on a different product. If everybody gets all the facilities, then good luck to them and happy computing I say. William

Abstract emoji-compatible characters (previously known as abstract emoji, but changed so as to minimize the possibility of controversy over the naming of them). Previously I have produced various designs. Some for personal pronouns, and some others. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/mariposa_novel.htm. I have now designed some abstract emoji-compatible characters to represent verbs. There are twenty-seven of them thus far. Here are some designs. The top row show three designs. The design idea is that each of those three designs can be thought of as a design type. For each of those design types, nine characters can be produced, by having either or both of the external to the square vertical blue lines present, and having either or both of the external to the square horizontal blue lines present. The lower row shows three example characters. I have not yet assigned meanings to any of them yet. I am thinking that a simple sentence would consist of four characters, zero or more emoji characters and zero or more abstract emoji-compatible characters. Firs character a noun or personal pronoun, picture or abstract. Second a tense indicator, one of present, future, past, pluperfect, and others. Third a verb character. Fourth a noun. For example, I am wanting a pineapple. would have three abstract emoji-compatible characters followed by an emoji character. A man is wanting a pineapple. would have an emoji character, followed by two abstract emoji-compatible characters, followed by an emoji character. William

It might not have happened yet, but on a previous occasion after a while I saw that people who were in a "gimbal lock" situation each were promised an email with an offer. So, this time, maybe it will happen, maybe it won't. It is not good for a business to have customers who are cheesed off with the service received. William

You might find https://punster.me/serif/ to be what you would like. It is run by @Alfred and is a polite forum, with nice people, some of whom were regular participants in the old Serif lounge. William

Neither, it is excellent elucidation of prospective problems so as to magnificently minimize distressing disappointments. William

Oh, so potentially one of those sort of "gimbal lock" things whereby Serif offers simultaneously a discount for m days and a free trial for n days and n is somewhat greater than m and then after n days when the trial period expires and the potential customer decides to buy the product the potential customer is ... er ... concerned, that the discounted price is no longer available. On the previous occasion I think that, after ... er ... feedback in this forum that Serif management allowed people who were in the "gimbal lock" to buy the product at the discounted price. So, is the situation the same as what happened last time, or is it now built-in to the process that if a prospective customer starts the trial during the discounted price period that he or she has the option of buying the software at the discounted price up until, say, the day after the trial period expires? Whichever way it is going to work, it would, in my opinion, be best if the situation is made clear now rather than ambiguity and scope for confusion and concern arising at a later date. William

I had been researching on using my invention of encoded localizable sentences for communication through the language barrier in some particular circumstances. Separately, I saw that Google street view introduced views from inside some art galleries around the world. One, MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, included a number of views of the foyer as well as some views of paintings. I found this interesting, because if one physically visits an art gallery one enters from outside, and experiences such things as the foyer, the shop, the café and so on, as well as the paintings and other art works. In that foyer presentation there was, positioned so that people would see it as thet were on the way to the exit, was a free-standing sign on a pole, which had Thank you for visiting. in English and below it text in about six other languages conveying the same meaning. But, there are many more languages than that in the world, so I thought that adding a symbol that had that meaning in every language would be good. But that is useful if people know the meaning of the symbol. What if they do not? So, gradually, as my ideas for localizable sentences and their applications developed as my research proceeded, I decded that as an additional possibility, to design a sign that was totally language-independent, so that it was not a matter of text for some languages and use the symbol for other languages, so all languages equal. So I like to think of the signs in this thread as both modern art and also functional. So if the signs were displayed in an art gallery what would they be? If displayed side by side in a gallery as images suggested by someone, then they are only art exhibits. If the Welcome sign. is displayed near the entrance and the Thank you for visiting sign. is displayed near the exit, then they are functional, perhaps also art. I suppose that both could be done, so in use near the entrance and the exit, and also in a display in one of the galleries. William

Another idea is that, whereas Serif has versions in English, French, German, (are there any other versions?) if Serif had a localizable version, then a sentence.dat file could be used to localize terms such as Open and Save As... and so on. That way, a version of Serif Affinity software could be produced with menus in any language that can be expressed in Unicode, by having a sentence.dat file in that language. So, for example, a version in Welsh, a version in Latvian, a version in Japanese, and so on. William

Well, this section has as its subheading. > Discussions about features that you think will make Affinity even better. ALL suggestions about the software go in this forum So I have made a suggestion that I think will make Affinity even better. Serif is in a win-win situation over this suggestion. If Serif does not implement my suggestion, then Serif loses nothing. If Serif does implement my suggestion, then Serif will gain the enormous publicity of having made a magnificent forward leap in implementing an invention. Other good things might follow from that. William

Oh Ali! I was reading this thread, and I was delighted to see a post from you. Now, alas, in a later post you are saying you are going. Alas. I remember the way you helped me. Also, in my second novel, one of the characters is named after what you once posted in a video that included you saying your favourite word in Spanish. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/localizable_sentences_the_second_novel_chapter_019.pdf Please reconsider. There are some wonderful threads in the Share your work forum. William

I was meaning in the modality of the visitor having brought his or her own iPad to the art gallery. The thing is to get an invention into widespread use one needs to start somewhere. Something I learned and which has worked well for me is "Never grumble away your opportunities". William

Thank you for replying. Please consider the present facility of using ligatures in text. If there is some text in Affinity Publisher and using ligatures has been selected and the font in use supports ligatures, then a sequence such as ct will have a ct ligature glyph substituted in place of the letters ct. I am thinking that the mechanism would be somewhat similar in some ways, though not in others. I am thinking that if localization of localizable sentence codes has been selected and there is an appropriate sentence.dat file available to Affinity Publisher, then if a sequence of text that starts with an exclamation mark and followed directly by some digits is in the text then the sentence.dat file would be searched and if a match for the digits is found to the left of a | character, then the text to the right of the | character is substituted in place of the exclamation mark and the digits following it. Thus the localizable sentence would become a sentence localized into some chosen language. If the implementation were on an iPad then the iPad could be used in an art gallery and the code, such as !983 entered into Affinity Publisher, either by manually keying a code number displayed on a sign in the art gallery, or, perhaps the code becoming entered into Affinity Publisher by reading it automatically from the QR code that in part of the sign. William

Thank you for replying. The idea is that it is a table that is readable by humans as well as by an automated system. If someone who is bilingual localizes the file to another language, keeping the numbers to the left of the | characters unchanged yet translating the text that is to the right of the | characters, then the file could be used in an automated system, such as, for example, a smartphone being held by a visitor to an art gallery who is wondering what is the meaning of the language-independent sign, and the meaning would be displayed upon the screen of the smartphone. So if the sentence.dat file is localized to another language, that localization takes place once, yet the sentence.dat file that is produced can be used an unlimited number of times by lots of people. I saw in Google streetview a view in the foyer of MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, (as the foyer was before the foyer was rebuilt) and there was a sign that had in English and about six other languages the message Thank you for visiting. The sign was between the stairs and the exit, so visitors would see it on the way out. Yet there are many more than seven languages in the world. So my idea is that a language-independent sign would be equal for all, and people might know the meaning of the symbol each in their own language, or could find the meaning in their own language by using an app on a device. Yet the app would work with any language that can be expressed in Unicode because the app would work with the sentence.dat file to which it has access. So no need for a separate version of the app for each language, just a version of the sentence.dat file for each supported language William

608 views so far. I have started a thread in Feedback for the Affinity V2 Suite of Products in the hope that Serif will implement localizable sentence decoding in Affinity products. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/174500-can-serif-consider-implementing-decoding-of-localizable-sentence-codes-please/ William

Can Serif consider implementing decoding of localizable sentence codes please? I posted within a thread in the Share your work forum. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/169391-language-independent-signs-for-art-galleries/&do=findComment&comment=1001122 Could you have a look at the possibilities please? If the implementation happens the result would be an enormous leap forward in information technology, with Serif at the forefront of applying the invention. William

The thread now has 589 views yet only two views of the file. In case people are concerned about opening it, here is a transcript of the content of the file. The file contains the information needed to localize the meaning of the sign into English. The idea is that inserting the code number, or scanning the QR code into a device, such as a smartphone running an appropriate app, the app would use whatever sentence.dat file it had to display the meaning on the screen. So the app using this version of the sentence.dat file would result in the meaning being displayed in English. If the app were using a different version of the sentence.dat file, a version for some other language, the meaning would be displayed in that language. *sentence.dat *Art Gallery signs 2022-11-24 Thursday *English en-gb-oed 127|Welcome. 983|Thank you for visiting. % The implementation of this facility would be quite a big task if started from zero. However, it is possible that the facility could be added to an Affinity product, or a test copy of an Affinity program, by Serif programmers by using their knowledge and skill and the facilities available to them, by adapting a copy of the software used for implementing the glyph substitution of an OpenType liga table, by regarding the sentence.dat file as if it is sort of like an external variant of a glyph substitution table from a font. If that implementation happens the result would be an enormous leap forward in information technology, with Serif at the forefront of applying the invention. Wow! William

Yesterday, after I posted my previous post, this thread had 464 views. One listed download of the attached file was me opening the attachment and checking that the upload had worked correctly. Now it is over 550 views of the thread. So of all of those views of the thread, only one person has has either opened or downloaded the attached file. I am puzzled as to why, having seen the title and chosen to view the thread, the vast majority of people viewing the thread have not opened the attachment. I do not know how many people, if any, looked at the document linked from the post. Can anyone who looked at the thread yet chose not to look at the attached file say why please? William

Some readers may enjoy studying how I have designed the way to decode the code numbers. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/The_Format_of_the_sentence_dot_dat_files_for_use_in_Research_on_Communication_through_the_Language_Barrier_using_encoded_Localizable_Sentences.pdf Attached to this post is a sentence.dat file specifically written to show how decoding of the code numbers in these images could be achieved. William sentence.dat

Well done. William

Duolingo.com carries advertising. Very responsibly done, only between lessons, not in lessons, not in lesson content. I have today been continuing to learn Welsh and when I had completed te lesson there was an advertisement for Affinity products. Interestingly it consisted of a large logo for Affinity Publisher at the left and smaller logos for the other two Affinity programs one above the other to the right. I recognized the colourful logos immediately. Is Serif management aware that Affinity products are being adverised on Duolingo.com or is it that Serif advertises with a service that places advertisements for many products on many websites, so it is not known on which site the advertisement will appear? So maybe this post might be providing information of which you were not aware. William

Does this help at all? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgxAlKRPT8c https://lyricstranslate.com/en/nana-mouskouri-nuestro-hogar-lyrics.html https://lyricstranslate.com/en/nuestro-hogar-our-home.html William