TimBenderSLS
举人
For beginning learners, pleco has a huge variety of useful Chinese-English dictionaries. For advanced users, with the inclusion of Hanyudacidian, Pleco now has 2 modern Chinese-Chinese dictionaries, 2 classical C-C, 1 Chengyu c-c (+ an additional classical c-c and 2 budhist c-c dictionaries from the user created selection). There are also additional tools for specilized areas like Chinese medicine. There really is amazing coverage of basically any word one might want to look up.
I have put some thought into what gaps might remain in pleco coverage - ie, things I might want to look up under the current system and still have to reference outside sources to get a satisfying answer. Note that all of these are at least somewhat removed from the normal dictionary arena, and are more in the nature of an encyclopedia. While treating pleco as a substitute for 百度百科 clearly is not feasible nor desirable, I believe there are some small, defined areas of not-quite-traditional-dictionary-coverage that may be useful within pleco.
I am not sure if any of these would be cost effective or easily done within the limits of current programing, so I am not so much recommending these as simply wondering whether they would be feasible. I'll write the list in terms of things I would want to look up:
1) Place names. Current coverage for important places sometimes gives a province and county (if a historical name), but what might be useful is to have more comprehensive coverage of modern (and perhaps historical) place names, perhaps even with a tiny map graphic that identifies the approximate place within China.
2) Historical figures (definitely throughout Chinese history, perhaps including the chinese transliterations for figures from the rest of the world). The user created MoE dictionary already has some of these, but coverage remains somewhat spotty.
3) Animals and Plants. Current C-E dictionaries seem to often give a technical name for the animal or plant in english (which I most often do not recognize), and C-C dictionaries tend to give a very long and technical description of the animal in Chinese. Usually, what I would prefer is a picture of the animal together with a short, non technical description of it, either in english or chinese. I imagine pictures would not be feasible for pleco (I imagine the download size would be far too large), but perhaps there is some clever way to provide more information than currently available in a less technical format.
Not that these come up that often, or are particularly difficult to look up through other means. But with coverage so good in the traditional dictionary role, these are the only places I could come up with that I would find additional coverage useful. Perhaps others have additional gaps in coverage that they have noticed?
I have put some thought into what gaps might remain in pleco coverage - ie, things I might want to look up under the current system and still have to reference outside sources to get a satisfying answer. Note that all of these are at least somewhat removed from the normal dictionary arena, and are more in the nature of an encyclopedia. While treating pleco as a substitute for 百度百科 clearly is not feasible nor desirable, I believe there are some small, defined areas of not-quite-traditional-dictionary-coverage that may be useful within pleco.
I am not sure if any of these would be cost effective or easily done within the limits of current programing, so I am not so much recommending these as simply wondering whether they would be feasible. I'll write the list in terms of things I would want to look up:
1) Place names. Current coverage for important places sometimes gives a province and county (if a historical name), but what might be useful is to have more comprehensive coverage of modern (and perhaps historical) place names, perhaps even with a tiny map graphic that identifies the approximate place within China.
2) Historical figures (definitely throughout Chinese history, perhaps including the chinese transliterations for figures from the rest of the world). The user created MoE dictionary already has some of these, but coverage remains somewhat spotty.
3) Animals and Plants. Current C-E dictionaries seem to often give a technical name for the animal or plant in english (which I most often do not recognize), and C-C dictionaries tend to give a very long and technical description of the animal in Chinese. Usually, what I would prefer is a picture of the animal together with a short, non technical description of it, either in english or chinese. I imagine pictures would not be feasible for pleco (I imagine the download size would be far too large), but perhaps there is some clever way to provide more information than currently available in a less technical format.
Not that these come up that often, or are particularly difficult to look up through other means. But with coverage so good in the traditional dictionary role, these are the only places I could come up with that I would find additional coverage useful. Perhaps others have additional gaps in coverage that they have noticed?