Feature Suggestions

[mikelove]

We can certainly consider it - not really any reason it should differ from the way the main dictionary works in that respect, though if we change it we'll have to add a preference option to change it back for the sake of people who prefer it the way it is now. (as with so many other things)

 

[KesterN]

Oh, I'm not suggesting to make it the default. I thought it would just be a case of adding two more checkboxes ("use in instant access" and "use in popup defn") to the already-existing checkboxes ("use in search" and "use in reader") in the manage dicts dialogue... i.e. one would have to consciously enable the options.

 

[mfcb]

in 1.0 it was possible to configure the time interval for the flashcards in repetion spaced tests.

i had my cards scores configured that at score 1 it was 0 days (new cards i saw 3 times on the same day, so i can memorize them) score 2 was 1 day, ... score 10 9 days... that ways i had every day around 400 to 800 cards to review, so my hour on the bus (to and from work) was saved.

with 2.0 the scores have been multiplied by 100, and the docu says that a card with 100 is shown once every day, score 200 shown every second day.... but i wonder how it continues, because right now sometimes i have to review only 150 cards a day, and some of them are the new ones i added.

mike, could you explain the relation between the scores and the repetion interval in detail, so that i can tweak the scores to get a similar frequency for the cards as in 1.0? and secondly i would like to have the possibility back, to configure the intervals myself

PS: for the 0 days configuration i did a second profile that uses the same score file and configured it for frequency based and scores between 0 and 199... that is even better than it was in 1.0, but i dont like the idea to do that for all steps, as it makes a difference for me to review based on the knowledge how good/long i know the card...

 

[ipsi]

It's extremely simple: under advanced settings there's a box called 'Points per Day' (when you've got repetition spacing selected). Take the score of a card, divide it by that, and you'll get the number of days it'll take before it shows up again (or something like that, I believe). Easily changeable .

The trickier bit is what determines the score. You can find the algorithm for repetition spacing in the manual somewhere.

 

[mfcb]

It's extremely simple: under advanced settings there's a box called 'Points per Day' (when you've got repetition spacing selected). Take the score of a card, divide it by that, and you'll get the number of days it'll take before it shows up again (or something like that, I believe). Easily changeable .

The trickier bit is what determines the score. You can find the algorithm for repetition spacing in the manual somewhere.

oh, i misinterpreted that 'Points per Day' ... hehe, so i only need to wonder why i have only 150 cards sometimes, maybe in a few days i will have to fight against 2000...

the scoring i figured out already, i hope...

 

[taijidan]

I have lots of words in my flashcard list.
I want to get a statistic of how many individual characters they include.
And then get a breakdown of how those characters are spread within a frequency list or HSK word list.
Is it possible to that in 2.0?taijidan

taijidan - there's not really a way to get that information right now, though it's an interesting idea for a future release.

Thanks please consider it for 2.1

The other statistics that would be useful for spaced repetition is to get the forecast of how many cards are due tomorrow or scheduled for the next 7 days etc. Currently I have to play around with the system date on the OS to find out how many cards to expect the next day.

Until then I was thinking if the flashcards are stored in sqlite I might be able to write my own query to get the statistics I am interested in. Do you have any tips on the database filename, location etc to get started?

The other idea would be to have some kind of plugin interface so we could write our own statistic scripts.

I would also be interested in a Chengyu dictionary. I know that ABC and Guifan have many chengyu with their meaning, but it would also be useful to have one that has all the stories that go with them - this would also fit nicely with the new document reader.

 

[mikelove]

KesterN - "use in reader" actually already applies to IA / popup searches too, though it certainly might make sense to break them out into their own separate options.

taijidan - a few people have suggested displaying a schedule like that for repetition-spacing, actually, though it might be a little difficult to implement. The database file is stored in your Palm's hidden internal flash memory - easiest way to get it out of there is with PlecoMover. Once you copy it to an SD card, it's a regular old SQLite database file which any SQLite database utility (there's one that's a Firefox plugin, actually, and a free standalone one called SQLite Database Browser that's a bit out of date but still seems to work fine with Pleco databases) should be able to open - the field names in the scorefile tables are pretty self-explanatory.

 

[KesterN]

KesterN - "use in reader" actually already applies to IA / popup searches too, though it certainly might make sense to break them out into their own separate options.

Ah, in which case, I'm afraid it's not working for me (with B8 or 2.0.0)

 

[mikelove]

Hmm, OK, we'll take a look at that. (though this may be another case where we don't want to change something which people have gotten used to having work a different way)

 

[stephanhodges]

In addition to the SQLite browser in Firefox, here's a link to the one already mentioned (a little long in the tooth...) http://sqlitebrowser.sourceforge.net/

and I found a "survey" page here: http://www.geocities.com/colinpriley/sq ... anager.htm which lists some of the available GUI tools. Note at the TOP of the page is the index for remaining pages. I didn't notice that at first...

 

[F_Kal]

After getting my hands on Pleco 2.0, I should say I'm really impressed. By the way, I have two things on my wishlist:

At some point I read somebody wishing that the Popup Definition could allow you to jump to a word. It's very convinient that I use the pop-up to search a word on which I need some more "quick" clarifications, but then if I realize there is more to it and should investigate a bit more, there is no way. I have to copy the word, close the popup and in the main window paste it. eg. while looking the entry for 位置 in the main window，I realize I should check what "位" means. I open a popup and then my attention is drawn by 地位 that I would now like to follow to it's own definition, but I can't. I think It would be great to have in the popup an option of copying the word to the input field, or at least just like in the main window, when selecting a word, in the "right click" menu instead of just copy, there should be an option such "copy to input field" or "show popup" It would be so handy!

Another thing that I'd like to see implemented is an option to have many dictionaries merged into one list. Just like Powerword does: eg. First display ABC entries for the word, then comes the Unihan, next comes the Guifan, etc etc. in that way by just scrolling you can find the thing you may need, without having to switch dictionaries... It doesn't matter if at some degree the entries are similar!

Thanks for the time reading that,
but most of all, thanks for the time spent bringing us pleco2!

 

[mikelove]

F_Kal - a proper Input Field should definitely be coming to the popup dictionary window eventually at some point, though we're not exactly sure when. For memory / performance reasons it will probably not be possible to pop up another dictionary on top of the first popup, but it should at least be possible to Copy to Input etc without going back to the main screen.

Merging results from multiple dictionaries was actually on the feature list for 2.0, in fact we even implemented it in some early builds, but it proved way too slow (particularly on Palm OS) so we took it out. Might happen at whatever point we stop supporting Palm, though.

 

[The Duelist]

Hi Mike

I Would Like To Suggest A Minor Enhancement To Multiple-Choice Flashcard Sessions.
Just Wondering If The Answer-Select Panel Could Be 'Hidden' After The Card Has Been Revealed.
This Would Allow The User To See More Of The Defnition On Screen.
At The Moment The 'Blank' Answer Panel Is Wasted Screen Space.
This Would Be A Nice Enhancement Particularly If The User Only Has A Small Screen,
Where The User Currently Only Gets To See One/Two Lines At A Time.

TIA
The Duelist

 

[ldolse]

Just my 2 cents regarding pop-up def. I do agree with FKAL that there should be some sort of button or context menu option that allows someone to do a have the pop-up window search for a new character, but I wouldn't like the pop-up def to have it's own text input box. Seems like to much clutter. Aside from UI clutter I'd be concerned about any sort of performance hit associated with making it significantly more complex - I'd like to see that feature work as quickly as possible, particularly for IA.

 

[F_Kal]

I also agree that an Input field is too much. The only reason one would like to use the popup is to hyperlink to another definition of a character appearing in the popup definition. For that no input field is needed. Just a way to grab a character/word and jump to it's definition. I guess opening the content in the same popup window or in the main window(and automatic closing the popup and merging the search histories of the popup and the main window) would be ideal!

 

[mikelove]

The Duelist - we could consider that, but I think people might still like to see their incorrect answer along with the correct one; perhaps we could have an option to hide / shrink the choices box somehow once the card is answered / scored.

ldolse / F_Kal - there shouldn't be any performance hit from giving it its own input box, but I agree the clutter might be annoying - however, a little more clutter would be needed regardless, since we'd need to add back/forward buttons (and maintain a separate back/forward history, which would definitely add some complexity) in order for people to have a way to go back if they mistakenly tapped the wrong link / highlighted the wrong text to Copy to Input.

 

[sfrrr]

I definitely like to see the wrong and right answers together. It helps me figure out what was confusing me.

 

[stoney]

How about an mp3 player built into the reader. You could start and stop listening as you read along without having to switch in and out of pleco.
Is this way over the top or within the realm of possibility?

 

[mikelove]

MP3 is a bit problematic due to patent licensing issues - basically it would be difficult for us to add MP3 support on a platform that didn't already include it built-in, which means it's unlikely we could do this on Palm (though it probably could be done on Windows Mobile).

There are MP3 players for both WM and Palm that can run in the background, though, and many of them will also let you start / pause / change volume / etc without leaving the application you're currently in.

 

[stephanhodges]

Enhance the batch delete command to only delete cards that don't have entries in other categories.

Make category names case-insensitive. I had one called "Radicals" and I just added the new one from Idolse called "radicals". I thought I was deleting the "radicals" one :shock: but deleted the other one by mistake...