Most of the computational tools we will use this year in Field Methods have been developed by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Check out their SIL Computing Resources page. There are lots of interesting and useful links.
Please e-mail me at reng {at} rice.edu if you have suggestions for additional links and resources.
In order to make all of our data accessible and available to everyone in the class, we will be using the Doulos SIL Font. This is a Unicode font which works on both Windows and Macintosh. Please download and install it. These are not the same as the older families of SIL symbol fonts ("SILDoulosIPA93", "SILDoulosIPA", "SILManuscriptIPA", "SILSophiaIPA", etc.), which you should not be using at all in Field Methods anymore. For this class, make sure to only use the "Doulos SIL" font. Other fonts will not be compatible across platforms or in the online database, and I want to ensure that we do not run into data compatibility issues. I know this is "harsh", but I will not accept work turned in using any other font than the Doulos SIL linked here.
If you have data in the older, non-Unicode SIL fonts, TECKit is a conversion toolkit which will convert plain text files using symbol fonts into Unicode. This is very tricky, and unless you are particularly computer savvy, I would recommend being very careful with it.
IPA Unicode 1.0.4 Keyman Keyboard is a Keyman keyboard layout for the Doulos SIL Font under Windows. This allows easy entry of Unicode characters directly from the keyboard. Documentation is included in the download. To use this keyboard layout, you will also need to download and install Keyman 6.0 from Tavultesoft. There are other options for Windows keyboards listed at the SIL site too, if you don't want to use this one. Note that you will need to register Keyman 6.0; it's free if it's on your own personal machine. I am waiting to hear back about licences for Rice-owned machines.
If you use a Macintosh, IPA-SIL keyboard for Mac OS X is available for use with the Doulos SIL font.
Eventually there will be a link here to the online web database designed for this class.
Toolbox is SIL's replacement for the older Shoebox program. We will be using this for glossing and interlinearizing texts, as well as for importing the lexicon from the online database. A tutorial is also available at the above link, but we will go over the basics in class too.
Last updated: Sept. 21, 2004 by Robert Englebretson for Fall 2004 semester.