1.0.2 Requests?

[mikelove]

So it looks like we're going to do a 1.0.2 release of PlecoDict on Palm, probably around the end of June or the start of July. While there are a few minor bugs we'd like to fix, the main reasons for releasing 1.0.2 are business-related: we want to fix the dictionary indicator icon system, because we're getting very close on a couple of new licensing deals, and we want to add in support for SD card unlocking, because we realized that putting that in a separate version of the application would be a tech support nightmare. Plus there are some documentation updates, including coverage of our new automated installation system.

However, since we're making code changes anyway, this presents an opportunity for us to make a few minor feature changes or tweaks, so if anybody has any requests, feel free to post them here. The emphasis is on "minor" - if it involves more than an hour of programming time it probably isn't going to happen. The only exception to this is on installation-related matters; if you can think of some software or website feature that would make PlecoDict significantly easier to install or set up, we'd be very interested in that.

Those of you waiting desperately for the Pocket PC version needn't worry; we're still working on that too, and another change in 1.0.2 will be a code reorganization to make parts of it easier to maintain between versions.

 

[KangSir]

test results

Well, here's one for ya- After a test session I get the results of how many right and wrong, a nice wrap up. Then the amount of time it took in seconds. If it was 90 seconds or less, I wouldn't mind, but when it's 4896 seconds, I feel the burden of the division required to convert it to minutes + seconds is too heavy, and there is brief moment of depression.

 

[Jianchuanbrit]

Here's one I mentioned in a different thread - from the English side, have a search jump across dictionaries if it doesn't find what it is looking for in the currently open dictionary. Thanks.

 

[KangSir]

manual custom editing

On second thought Mike, never mind about the 4000 seconds problem now. Save it for when you don't have anything better to do.

If you're willing to put an hour in, here's what I really need-

As an advanced student, and I think any other level of student would soon reap benefits from this, I need a much more robust custom entry function. One of the best ways to study a language is to memorize words and phrases that you find personally useful or interesting. That means making up your own sentence/phrase examples. The add/edit custom entry function as it is now is of minimal use. Unless I am doing something wrong, it seems it only allows an entry of one character in length. 对我来说,几乎是没有用途的. I know you have given some thought to this, and I know it's definitely not a one hour job. Really, what it needs to be is a desktop function so we can use a full keyboard. It would also be able to open my flashcard backup file and edit from their, then sync to the PDA. I did try the current MakePlecodict, I only got as far as clicking the exe file and opening the DOS prompt. What would I do from there? How to enter Chinese etc. I only have intermediate computer skills.

If you can give me complete instructions on how to do this stuff manually, it would be a temporary solution until you get around to the above. If I could learn the process, I'm sure it would let me do everything I want to do.

I would like to write custom entries on my desktop using Outlook, as it has the Chinese IME option, then saving it as Unicode (I think that would be the way to go). Then I want to import the entries into my Tungsten E, and into Plecodict. Being able to export my flashcard files to my desktop, edit them, then put them back on my PDA, would be the icing on the cake. I know you have some instructions on how to do this already, but they are not dumbed down enough for me. I need a step by step walk through.

Plecodict is already an awesome program, and I know you're going to make it better and better. Keep following your vision.

Plecodict 万岁!

Sincerely,
Kang Sir

 

[gandq]

@ Kang Sir
Creating your custom stuff on the desktop is no problem, actually. I do it all the time. That way, an entry can span at least two lines - more than enough for inputting whole sentences.
Minor editing can be done on the palm. You could export all your custom Files to a text file and delete the rest, edit it and do a reimport, btw., so even your re-edit request is working already.

I will be happily assisting you if you have any further questions, just write me a mail: gandq(AD)web.de. I have been bothering Mike with custom entry-related questions for the last few moths, so maybe i can safe him some time now by helping you on this.

And i would support your suggestion regarding the seconds to minutes conversion!


@ Mike
I think you pretty much know all my suggestions already, minor and bigger ones. But you asked for it ;-) : in 1.0.2 i would like to see the following minor changes/additions:

- 'review all cards i got wrong during the last session' option on the session results/statistics screen

- return to 'setup session' screen instead of dictionary screen when exiting or having finished a flashcard session

- OR mode for 'require flags' option (right now, only cards with ALL selected flags will be found)

- cut/copy/paste buttons in the 'edit custom entry' screen

- scroll bars for the chinese and pinyin field on the above screen!

- possibility to enter several chars at a time when using the HWR in the above screen

- 'delete all INVALID entries from list' option in the edit list screen

- 'move all' option in the above screen

- how about a button to 'look up marked term in dictionary' button on the flashcards? (that way the session would end, but i think it would be a really useful feature. i do it very often by copying a word, exiting the session and the pasting it to the dictionary input field. this could make up for the resident not being available in a flashcard session.)

- second extra info on a flashcard (there is enough room already!)

- silkscreen input needs to be registered as such and should trigger the search delay! (sony-only problem?)

those are all that come to my mind right now. other ones, if any, are already in your 'noted suggestions list', i guess.

to me, having no knowledge of programming, all these sound like minor changes. please forgive me if i am wrong.

as always: many thanks for all your work and many greetings,





jo.

PS: are there so many people having problems with the installation? the unlock-file worked 'like a charm' for me...

 

[David]

How about a copy button in instant access mode? (BTW, I know you can already copy.)

 

[KangSir]

Gandq- I'll take you up on the walk thru offer. Thanks

Yes, we need to keep Mike's time freed up as much as possible so that he can continue to bring us more and better high powered features!

 

[Anonymous]

I got a few minor changes I liked to see, although I have no idea how long they take to program.

1. I'd liked to be able to better organise my flashcards, like in subfolders.

2. For testing flashcards it would be nice to have sort of a loop so it keeps testing you the words you get wrong until you get them all right.

3. When in testing mode be able to delete flashcards or "block" them.

4. I installed some of the free dictionaries but deleted the them again. I usually like to see how both the oxford and the ABC explains a word but with 5 dictionaries, it becomes a bit of a hazzle to quickly switch between these two. It's nice to have the extra dictionaries once in a while so could it be possible to deactivate a dictionary perhaps?

As always looking forward to the next version keep up the great work.

 

[mikelove]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I won't go ever everything in super-fine detail, but basically, KangSir's suggestion about seconds to minutes is about the level of complexity that I'm looking for, Jinchuanbrit's suggestion about cascading English search is a "maybe" (it's been on our list for a while, actually).

KangSir's suggestion about more powerful custom dictionary support is probably a no-go for this version but I appreciate the feedback anyway. You can certainly make custom dictionary entries longer than 1 character, though - what happens when you try to do that now? A more powerful and user-friendly desktop program is something in the "2.0 and beyond" category, sadly.

gandq - thanks for summarizing these (and I think there are a few new ones in here). I don't imagine they'll all make into this relatively-minor release, but at least a few of them should. And yes, there have been a lot of people reporting installation problems, usually related to a lack of free memory (an anticipated but unavoidable problem with the gigantic ABC database).

David - good idea but I'm a little worried about the copyright implications - I don't think we should really be encouraging people to copy out large swaths of text from the dictionary.

Maisi - these are all good suggestions, but rather complicated to implement, so they probably won't make it into this release - they're certainly possibilities for version 1.1, though.

 

[Steve]

Look up magnified characters; use 96pt font for flashcards?

1.
Magnified character lookup would be great.

I often look up things I find in definitions, and it's currently very difficult to select a character precisely. (I usually get nothing, the one to the left of what I want, or more than one character.)

My choice would be for a tap in the magnified character square to do this, but also good and maybe less confusing would be to use the "copy to input field" toolbar button. Yet another option would be for the character to be auto-selected when the magnify box is closed.


2.
Using the 96-point font in flashcards would let me free up another 6MB by deleting the 48-point font. I'm not complaining - the entire Pleco installation, and the free dictionaries, and the 96-point font (which is worth every byte!), and all my other Palm stuff all fit in my Zodiac 2 RAM with 15 MB left over. But 21 MB sure would be nice!

Thanks,

?? Steve

 

[Jianchuanbrit]

I would second Steve's point number 1, that would be nice.

I also want to ask whether showing traditional characters could be an option instead of being shown all the time in brackets. I rarely want to see them and having a check box in prefernces to either display or not display the second set would be nice. Choosing to not display them would free up some screen space.

 

[KangSir]

manula editing

Mike-

If Gandg walks me thru it, I'll probably get it figured out. After I do, I can write a "Manual Editing for Dummies entry". I'll put the request for Desktop Editing on the "More Great Things to Expect from PlecoDict in the Future" list.

To answer your question- when I try to do a new Add/Edit Custom Entry, I put up a character on the Word line via the HWR. Then, no matter where my cursor is, when I try to put up the 2nd character, it always erases the first. (Tungsten E)

The option of turning off all complex characters would really be nice. They just get in the way if you're not studying them.

Looking forward to that Chinese to Chinese dictionary!

PlecoDict 万岁!

 

[beirne]

My suggestion would be to have "Copy to Input Field" replace the current input field when acting on characters in the input field. Sometimes I'm entering what I think is a word but characters after the first don't bring up any words for the whole string. I'd then like to look at just the second or third characters. I've tried to hit the ctif icon but it just duplicates the first character and ignores the one I selected. I know I can backspace to eliminate the characters I don't want but it would be a nice convenience if this behavior was changed.

 

[mikelove]

Steve - #1 is definitely on our radar (though only a "maybe" for this release since it would likely be a not-insignificant amount of work), #2 is less likely because the flashcard screen really wouldn't accommodate a font that big very well - I suppose it's doable on a Zodiac, but then we get into the messy business of checking people's screen sizes and forcing their screen to stay expanded if they're using flashcards and don't have a 48-pixel font - a bit of a configuration nightmare.

Jinchuanbrit - this is already an option: just uncheck the "Show headwords in SC and TC" box in the Characters panel and that will get rid of the bracketed characters.

KangSir - is "Input Field Compatibility" enabled or disabled? If it's enabled, which Chinese OS are you using? This sounds like a bug...

beirne - good one, and quite easy to implement.

Thanks, all.

 

[Steve]

Thanks for the reply, Mike. I'm glad to hear #1 is on your radar, and #2 isn't a big deal at all, since I can move some files to an SD card if I start running out of RAM.

I'd welcome beirne's suggestion, too.

???? Steve

 

[Anonymous]

How about a Chinese text reader within PlecoDict? This, so we can read and learn Chinese, looking up the PlecoDict for words we are not sure of. Then we don't have to have another piece of software just to read Chinese text.

 

[KangSir]

KangSir - is "Input Field Compatibility" enabled or disabled? If it's enabled, which Chinese OS are you using? This sounds like a bug...

It is not checked, as I do not have a Chinese OS on my Tungsten E.

 

[mikelove]

James Quek - this is a pretty big feature, actually; it's one of the main things we're considering for PlecoDict 2.0, but it's much too complicated for this largely bug-fix release.

KangSir - I finally figured this out; you've enabled the "Clear input field before char input" option, right? This is reproducible with that option enabled - it looks like it doesn't distinguish between the Input Field and any other place that you might use the recognizer. Anyway, it should be easy to fix for 1.0.2, and in the meantime if you turn that option off you should be able to create multiple-character entries.

 

[David]

I just bought a Tungsten E so that PlecoDict would work better. (My dictionary files would occaisonally disappear with my old PDA.) But yesterday I was having a new problem. When I tried to access instant access mode from SuperMemo without any characters selected, the system would freeze up. Sometimes it froze up even when characters were selected. Then SuperMemo started crashing, with a message like "Utility.c line 202, database corrupt." I turned off instant access mode, and it doesn't seem to be crashing any more (I'm not totally sure that's a result of turning it off). I'm a little worried that my Supermemo database is corrupt and will suddenly stop working. I'm not sure what was causing the problem or when it will come back.

On the positive side, hotsync to the Tungsten is MUCH faster than my old PDA. And installing the HWR file was faster than entering all those codes. And the processor is fast enough that instant access mode doesn't offer many advantages over opening PlecoDict. But there doesn't seem to be a "paste from clipboard on startup mode." I recommend that for 1.02, or sometime in the near future.

 

[KangSir]

KangSir - I finally figured this out; you've enabled the "Clear input field before char input" option, right?

Yep, that was it.

Thanks Mike.