"A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese" Bug Report + Feedback Thread

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
As the title says. There are a few minor formatting improvements we're working on that will actually require an app update (for example, there's a bug that prevents us from inserting a ) after the a/b/c sub-definition headings), and we're also still pondering our solution for dealing with variants and 简体字.

The original dictionary is 繁体 only - we've left that aspect of it intact, but we did add the ability to search for simplified versions of characters when there is no separate entry in the dictionary for that simplified character - i.e., you can search for 鱼 and get 魚 because that's unambiguous, but if you search for 于 you'll only get the entry for 于 and won't get the entry for 於. (as it happens those two entries do link to each other, but that's not always the case) We thought this was the best way to support people dealing with simplified versions of Classical texts (all too common) without muddying any of the original character information.

As far as variants, at the moment we leave all of those entries exactly as they are in the printed version - i.e. for 魊 you'll see nothing but a ⦿ (this dictionary's symbol for variants) followed by a link to 蜮. Again, we're trying not to muddy any of the original information here, but we recognize this is a bit inefficient / annoying so we're working on a way to display the original entries inline here without losing anything.
 
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Shun

状元
The dot-within-circle symbol isn't visible in Night Mode. (and the text following it)

I'll send you screenshots by E-Mail because with iOS 8.1.1, I can't choose the images for the upload.
 
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mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
@Shun - seeing that here too, thanks.

@ACardiganAndAFrown - we'll be louder about it once it's been out a week or two and we've established there aren't any major problems with our conversion. (we'd also like to give the print version a little more time to get out - don't want to parachute in and steal all of their thunder)
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Feedback question for anybody reading this: should we continue including the medieval Chinese pronunciations (MC...) in result lists, or should we remove them from those + only show them in the full definition?
 

Shun

状元
Problem fixed, thanks!

I would keep the MC pronunciations in the results list, since they are short, and advanced users will recognize a search result more easily this way.
 
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mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
That would be nice, yes - will probably cost a lot more to hire a speaker who knows Medieval Chinese than one for modern Chinese, though :)
 
I bought the Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese right away. Looks terrific. I just wonder if the front material, intro, abbreviation table, etc. might be available somewhere to consult? I'm sure it's fascinating stuff, but perhaps it's only available in the print version, and difficult or impossible to wrangle into a Pleco-accessible form?
 

Shun

状元
Here I think the one included in 辞海 is much more detailed, and Grand Ricci also has one if you can access it through your university.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
@ACardiganAndAFrown - That one I actually addressed in a Facebook comment:

We're still considering strategies for getting all of that information somewhere in Pleco where people can actually access it - it feels kind of odd to have half a dozen different emperor reign tables in the same app, so we may end up taking one from a dictionary to which we have more expansive rights (e.g. the one we based PLC on, which though lacking months covers the entire span from 黄帝 through 宣统) and including that by itself in a general app-wide "references" section.
 

laobaigou

举人
Problem fixed, thanks!

I would keep the MC pronunciations in the results list, since they are short, and advanced users will recognize a search result more easily this way.

I agree. I would prefer to have the Pleco entries match in format what is in the book, including the MC pronunciations in their current location. These are actually very useful. Thx!!

I notice that the current Pleco dictionary does not contain some of the material for that entry in the brill sample file; I presume that will be forthcoming in a revision of the dictionary?
 
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Taichi

榜眼
Pardon me for asking a basic question. Is this a 文言文 dictionary? I'm thinking of studying 文言文, and wondering which dictionary to use.
 
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