|5ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» |5º |EBrainware|5 º ^1 American Sign Language Tutor |5 º |EBrainware|5 º |5ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ ^Cby ^CHerb Bartow Have you ever wanted to learn and use American Sign Language? Well now you can, and you can have fun while doing it too! Herb Bartow's interesting program, American Sign Language Tutor, turns your PC into your own private teacher allowing you to learn the signs for many common words such as "Mother", "Apple", "Book", "Car", and others. For those words not directly available as a sign, there is the manual alphabet, which lets you "finger spell" any word or number. First, learn to identify individual letters and numbers by typing the characters and then viewing the corresponding finger spelling. Then, let ASL Tutor quiz you on your knowledge. You can even create a textfile of characters for the computer to spell back at you. As you become a better sign reader, decrease the delay to build up your speed! ^1MAIN MENU^0 There are eight options available from the Main Menu. To choose one, use the arrow keys to highlight your selection then press or simply press the first letter of your choice. All eight options are explained below. ^11. LETTERS^0 This option will allow you to view the alphabetic or numerical sign for a particular letter or digit (0-9). Just press the key for the character you wish to see. Press at any time to return to the Main Menu. The size and color of the letters is determined by ASL.CFG. This file can be changed and optionally saved by selecting SETUP from the Main Menu. ^12. WORDS^0 This option will show you the finger spelling for a complete word a letter at a time. Multiple words may be entered separated by spaces. CGA limit: up to 35 characters (letters + spaces). EGA/VGA limit: up to 40 characters (letters + spaces). Hit after the last word. Size and color are determined by the SETUP options. An optional way of viewing words is to choose SETUP and set the WORDS option to "more than 1". This will display all letters for a word on the screen at the same time. To use this option you should set the hand size to a small value (1 or 2). This varies by graphics adapter. If more letters are entered then will fit on the screen, the letters are truncated off both ends of the words. It is best to use this option on words with few letters. Press to return to the Main Menu. ^13. TEXTFILE^0 This option will read in a standard ASCII text file and display it one letter at a time using the current SETUP options. You can return to the Main Menu at any time by pressing . This option provides a good way to practice reading finger spelling. The default textfile name is ASL.TXT, but this can be changed from SETUP. You can edit ASL.TXT or use any text editor to create your own file. If you create your own file, remember to change the default textfile name in SETUP. The textfile must be in the current directory. The DELAY option in SETUP controls the speed of presentation. ^14. QUIZ^0 This option will show a sign for a particular letter (A - Z) and wait for you to type in the matching letter on the keyboard. If you press the right key for the sign being displayed, a new sign will appear. If you get it wrong, the PC will beep. The sign will remain until you press the proper key. Hitting at any time will return you to the Main Menu. ^15. DICTIONARY^0 This option brings up a list of 50 common words that are contained in dictionary files. Use arrow keys to highlight the word whose sign you want to view and press . The program will continue to show the sign until any key is pressed. You will then be given the opportunity to view another sign or press to return to the Main Menu. The dictionary files LS1D.DCT and LS1S.CHR must both be present in the current directory. Generally, the signer faces the person he is signing to. Some illustrations are drawn from the side or three quarters view to afford a better view of the sign. ^16. SETUP^0 This option will allow you to configure American Sign Language Tutor to your system and preferences. When ASLT.EXE starts, it looks in the current directory for the file ASL.CFG. If it is found, configuration information contained in that file is loaded. If it is not found, ASLT.EXE uses default settings. From within SETUP, use the arrow keys to choose the setting you want to change then press . After changing all the settings to your preference, press to quit SETUP. You will be prompted to save these settings. If you answer 'Y', the file ASL.CFG will either be created or updated. The next time you start ASL Tutor these new settings will be used. If you answer 'N', the file ASL.CFG will NOT be updated. Either way, the settings WILL apply to the current session. To return ASL Tutor to its default state, simply delete ASL.CFG. The available options in SETUP are as follows: ^1TEXT COLOR^0 This is the color of the text on the main menus. It cannot be the same as the text background color. ^1TEXT BACKGROUND^0 This is the background color for the main menus. It cannot be the same as text color or bar background. ^1BAR COLOR^0 This is the color of the text in the highlighted choice bar. It cannot be the same as bar background color. ^1BAR BACKGROUND^0 This is the color of the background choice bar. It cannot be the same as the bar color or the text background. ^1HAND COLOR^0 This is the color of the displayed hands. For CGA there are only 3 valid choices. For EGA and VGA there are 15 valid colors. For EGA and VGA, hand color cannot be the same as hand background. In EGA/VGA black is not a valid hand color. Due to resolution restrictions in CGA, DICTIONARY is only available with white signs on a black background in CGA mode. EGA/VGA supports 15 colors. ^1HAND BACKGROUND^0 This is the graphics background color. For CGA, black is the only valid color. For EGA/VGA there are 16 valid colors. ^1WORDS - 1 OR MORE^0 With the default of 1, when you view WORDS from the Main Menu, you will see one letter at a time. When you set this option to "more than 1", the program will display all the letters for each word at one time on the screen. You should set the hand size to a small value when using the second option. ^1TEXT FILE NAME^0 This is the name of the file which is read and displayed from the TEXTFILE option on the Main Menu. Any standard ASCII file can be used, but it must be smaller than 4000 bytes. Please enter the file name and extension (file must be in the current directory). The default is ASL.TXT. ^1HAND SIZE^0 This is a sizing factor for the hands. Valid settings are 1 to 12; (1 is normal size, 3 is 3 times normal size, etc). If you set this value too high for your adapter, parts of the hands will not be displayed. Experiment with this number as it does make a big difference in the quality and appearance of the hands. ^1DISPLAY - SECONDS^0 This is the time delay between each letter in seconds. Valid values are between 0.1 and 15.0 seconds. As you become better at signing, you can lower this value. ^1GRAPHICS ADAPTER^0 Set this option to match your monitor and graphics adapter type. When you change this option remember that size, speed, and colors will be affected. The program has built in defaults which are set such as hand size and colors. You can change these after setting graphics adapter type. You cannot select a higher level adapter than you have. (If you have EGA, you cannot select VGA.) ^1HANDS - R OR L^0 This controls whether you will view right hands or left hands. This only controls letters and finger spelling. Numbers are always viewed right handed as are DICTIONARY words. ^17. F1-HELP^0 Two pages of help will pop up and briefly explain the available options. Press any key to exit the help screens. ^18. EXIT^0 This option returns you to DOS. ^1CONFIGURATION^0 When you start the program, a configuration file ASL.CFG will be read if it is available. This file is optionally created by the user and contains such things as screen colors and size of the graphic hand. If it is not found, the system defaults will be used. The file ASL.CFG is created after running SETUP from the main menu (see SETUP below). The program will issue a warning if ASL.CFG is not found. To eliminate this warning message, create and save a configuration file. ^1HARDWARE^0 ASL TUTOR runs in CGA mode (320x200), EGA mode (640x350), or VGA mode (640x480) on an IBM XT, AT, PS/2 or true IBM compatibles. ASL Tutor requires a color monitor and a color graphics adapter and can be run from a hard or floppy drive. ^1OUTSIDE BBD^0 To run this program outside the ^1Big Blue Disk^0 menu, type ^1ASLT^0. Disk files this programs uses: ^FASLT.EXE ^F ASL.CFG ^F ASL.TXT ^FLS1D.DCT ^FLS1S.CHR