Dotsies

Signs and symbols: Writing systems (hieroglyphs, nail writing) and Signed Toki Pona; unofficial scripts too
Signoj kaj simboloj: Skribsistemoj (hieroglifoj, ungoskribado) kaj la Tokipona Signolingvo; ankaŭ por neoficialaj skribsistemoj
jan-ante
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Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:05 pm

Dotsies

Post by jan-ante »

i saw a lot of script suggestions and suggested something myself, but this one is probably the best:
http://dotsies.org/
just a few quotation from that page, specially for jan Kipo
Dotsies is a font that uses dots instead of letters. The latin alphabet (abc...) was created thousands of years ago, and is optimized for writing, not reading. About time for an update, no? Dotsies is optimized for reading. The letters in each word smoosh together, so words look like shapes
Since latin letters (a, b, c, etc.) are optimized to be written by hand, they take up a lot of unnecessary space. Your eyes have to move at a frantic pace from left to right to read. Get more screen space! Save paper! Have a more comfortable reading experience.
in my experience (yet very brief) the word is looking like single hierogliph, althoust it is written phonetically. on that page you can try some toki pona words and phrases
Kuti
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Re: Dotsies

Post by Kuti »

:shock: interesting concept
jan-ante
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Re: Dotsies

Post by jan-ante »

for toki pona one can use just 4-dot columns as it gives 15 combination for 14 tp-letters
janSilipu
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Re: Dotsies

Post by janSilipu »

These have been around a while and have several interesting properties, though "optimized for reading" may not be one in general. For tp, however, the 125patterns might be easily learned and distinguished (names might be a little rougher). With the four-dot bar there might even be some transmission space, certainly a lot in printout. This does not seem to be much of a conceptual advance, however, of the sort that bringing in computers, etc., was supposed to bring about. It is just a new font, not a new way to present language.
jan-ante
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Re: Dotsies

Post by jan-ante »

janSilipu wrote: This does not seem to be much of a conceptual advance, however, of the sort that bringing in computers, etc., was supposed to bring about. It is just a new font, not a new way to present language.
this new familiy of fonts is a conceptual advance as it turns phonetical writing into hieroglyphic. the computer is important as it hard to write by hand. with new fonts of latin script the word "fcuk" resembles something to the native readers of english, but not with dotsies. just go to the dotsies page and check it.
janSilipu
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Re: Dotsies

Post by janSilipu »

Point taken, though the dotsie version of 'fcuk' might be as suggestive as the full Latin form once one got into the system. That is, so far as I can tell, dotes are just a different font for the same old alphabet, their charm being compression sand a bit of forcing of the pattern recog that we all genially use (see error studies). But tp's simple vocal makes that reco even more efficient (though there are plenty of opportunities to screw up still), except for proper adjectives.
jan-ante
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Re: Dotsies

Post by jan-ante »

janSilipu wrote:Point taken, though the dotsie version of 'fcuk' might be as suggestive as the full Latin form once one got into the system. That is, so far as I can tell, dotes are just a different font for the same old alphabet,
this is not really correct reasoning. the correct conclusion from your presumption is this: " dotsies might be a different font". But in my (very small yet) experience the "fcuk"-effect does not appear. i think it will not appear in future, because of its nature. just note that "tahn"-effect is much weaker than "fcuk"-effect. why? because the letter "h" protrudes upwards and the letter swap changes the general outline of word. in dotsies this situation is commomplace.
their charm being compression sand a bit of forcing of the pattern recog that we all genially use (see error studies).
in fact it depends on how big this "bit" is
But tp's simple vocal makes that reco even more efficient (though there are plenty of opportunities to screw up still), except for proper adjectives.
proper names problems could be solved as we have 15 patterns for 14 letters. just use an extra pettern as a capital mark
janKipo
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Re: Dotsies

Post by janKipo »

There are several ways to solve much of the residual fcuk effect with a dotsy version for tp, the first being a careful selection of the dotsy-to-letter alignment. The problem with proper names is not so much recognizing them as such (although that does occur) but that fact that we actually have to spell them out, rather than taking them in as blocks, as would presumably soon be the case with the base words.
The dotsy signs should be chose to minimalize the possibility of the existent word confusions (the sight one, anyhow), mainly, apparently, by making the vowels very distinct (sewi, suwi; pona, pana, etc.)
jan-ante
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Re: Dotsies

Post by jan-ante »

janKipo wrote: The problem with proper names is not so much recognizing them as such (although that does occur) but that fact that we actually have to spell them out, rather than taking them in as blocks, as would presumably soon be the case with the base words.
yes when one see the word for the first time he has to concentrate attention and spell it, the same as with latin script. but after that the word "Kipo" will be precieved as a single hieroglyph
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jan Josan
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Re: Dotsies

Post by jan Josan »

The site is really beautiful, and I love reading down the page, watching the bits of comprehensible information slowly becoming reduced. I question though any scripting that just permutates through a sequential progression. As much as is might make it easier to learn quickly by counting down from a down, shouldn't vowels be made most distinct from each other, for instance? I still really enjoy the letter combinations you came up with for their ability to reduce the information and yet retain the most important distinctions between words.

Interestingly, combining your two letter combinations with dotsies seems like it would be no less readable than the full word in dosties.

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