Beta 3 Feedback Thread

[mikelove]

Thanks - we are aware of the problem, and it should definitely be fixed in Beta 4 since we're overhauling the whole preferences storage system. (may not even keep them in the registry, actually, we're not sure about that - storing them in a simple binary file would make them much easier for people to delete)

 

[Alexis]

Hi Mike,

I tried playing around with the flashcards a bit. As soon as I removed the "Default" category and replace it with one of my own name, Pressing the "+" icon to add flashcards would not do anything. Whenever I go to view the flashcards that were added, the list is blank.

- Alexis

Tungsten T3. Pleco Beta 3a

 

[Dan_78cj5]

Mike, another new years has come and gone, what's the current timeline on Beta 4 or better yet, a full release PD 2.0? I know you hate trying to guess dates, but with as much as I am using my Beta 3a I really am getting anxious to stop carrying around two palms - one each for the full up and the test Pleco. I love using the stroke order, the GF dictionary, and the pop-up definitions, but since the flashcards on the beta have been giving me trouble I am still carrying both around. Despite all warnings that the Beta is problematic, it has been very stable, almost no crashes!

As always - Great products, Great service - thanks Mike.

 

[Shadowdh]

Just thought I would add a short bit of my own, I have been using pleco 2 (although sometimes one for the flashcards like HSK lists) for about 2 weeks now and I have to say I am so impressed... its much more stable than I thought, I love the stroke order part and like the new dictionaries... this is proving to be the best Chinese tool for the PPC bar none... (although I have only used two others ectaco and one other I really cant remember as it was only considered for a few mins after seeing Pleco)... apart from the aforementioned problems and bugs etc its been great... love the reader too (but hope to figure out its full potential once the final version comes out as I cant seem to find some Chinese files/docs with it)... its just so handy and clear (I am using the MDA Vario III or TyTN II as its also know as). Mate well impressed keep up the great work... if you need any endorsements at all I volunteer to be your poster boy... not that you would want my ugly mug on any poster though... :lol:

 

[mikelove]

Alexis - sorry for the slow reply. We've just found a bunch of new bugs in the category system, actually, so we'll make sure this one is fixed with the others.

Dan_78cj5 - the current development build is looking a lot more polished than Beta 3, and actually could probably be released as a Beta 3-and-a-half, but I don't think there's much point to putting out another beta until the software is really and truly feature-complete and that might take another month or more. We really want to get this right, there are way too many annoying things about 1.0 that could have been avoided with a little extra effort and since we're no longer under pressure to get something out ASAP for the sake of crash-afflicted Windows Mobile 6 users we feel like we can take a little more time.

Shadowdh - thanks a lot! (both for this and the recent Chinese-Forums comments The reader needs some improvement but it'll be getting it before the next beta comes out. We've been surprised at how stable the Pocket PC version is, actually, looking at the code there's really no reason it should be this solid yet but for whatever reason it all seems to hold together pretty well.

 

[thomashb]

I have read about keyfile problems with PPC but there are some on Palm (T3 in my case) as well: I installed Beta 3a with the new keyfile but without upgrading to the new features first and the keyfile worked without problems.

Now I just purchased the audio and stroke features. The new keyfile gives a warning: "Your keyfile has been accepted but some of the dictionaries or other components you purchased were not found....". After that the new features work and are reported as registered, but only until I restart PlecoDict. After the second start it reports the new features as demo components again. I have to reinstall the keyfile over and over.

I double checked that I installed everything from the pd2b3a and audio zip files. I now even installed all the dictionaries that I did not purchase to be sure. But that did not change the behaviour mentioned above.

This is my Palm/Launcher directory on the expansion card:

21cn.pdb	font12.pdb	man-b1.pdb	nwp.pdb		woman-b2.pdb
AdobeReader.prc	font15.pdb	man-b2.pdb	oxce.pdb	woman-b3.pdb
abc.pdb		font22.pdb	man-b3.pdb	oxec.pdb	woman-b4.pdb
ahq.pdb		font28.pdb	man-b4.pdb	plecostroke.pdb	woman-b5.pdb
b5.pdb		font48.pdb	man-b5.pdb	radicals.pdb	woman-idx.pdb
charset.pdb	gb.pdb		man-idx.pdb	unihan.pdb	woman-s1.pdb
ctbiz.pdb	guifan.pdb	man-s1.pdb	woman-b1.pdb

Pleco Engine.prc, PlecoDict HWR Database.pdb and oDict HWR Library.prc are in main memory of the Palm.

Can I try something to solve this?

 

[mikelove]

Could be something screwy with the preferences file - use FileZ's preferences editing function to go in and delete all preferences with creator code "PLEN", then try unlocking the software again with only the new keyfile.

 

[thomashb]

Thank you for the answer. Deleting everything and applying the new keyfile solved the problem.

And since this is a feedback thread and not only a "tell me your problem"-thread: PlecoDict 2 is great, even with the remaining bugs in this Beta release! Since I am rather at beginner level the stroke order diagrams are really helpful.

 

[mikelove]

Thanks! Glad it's proving useful even in its extended-beta state.

 

[Shadowdh]

I did a quick and simple search so I might have missed this but how does one make it so that the Chinese dictionaries open when you start the program and not the english ones and on a side note can I delete the Cheng and Tsui dictionary with no ill effect as it often defaults to that and as its a demo its a bit annoying... although having said that I might just buy it yet... sigh...

 

[sfrrr]

shadowh--I too have the English-default problem and asked about it at the beginning of beta 3. Mike said something non-committal (I think), but, in any case, I don't think there's any way to solve it until beta 4.

As for the C&T demo, I would expect that just deleting it from the folder in which it's installed should work just fine. But, in case there's something different about C&T, wait for confirmation on this.

Sandra

 

[mikelove]

Yeah, there's no way around it now but it's been fixed in our development builds for several weeks now and should work fine in Beta 4. And yes, just make sure to exit Pleco using the Quit command before you delete C&T - as long as you do that you should be fine.

 

[Shadowdh]

Excellent... thanks Mike I thought as much but its always good to check... especially as I am pretty technamalology illiterate... and even though I promised myself I would not do this I was just wondering if you have any info on when we can expect beta 4...? cheers mate

 

[mikelove]

Few more weeks, I guess - the flashcard system should officially be feature-complete within a couple of days, but after that there's still some minor surgery needed on the document reader and a few other things along with some general interface cleaning-up (making the WM version look more WM-like, etc). Also if the iPhone SDK comes out and does in fact prove workable (less and less likely, I'm afraid, the chatter seems to be mostly suggesting it'll be locked-down and only permit sales through iTunes and as I've said before that's an absolute dealbreaker for us) we'd like to at least do a quick scan of that and see if there are any minor tweaks we need to make to the database schemas etc in order to avoid having to overhaul them again for a potential iPhone version.

 

[hairyleprechaun]

Good job on asking "The Question" Shadowdh! I couldn't bring myself to do it (bur nonetheless really wanted to).

Thanks for the update Mike!

 

[Shadowdh]

Thanks for the update Mike... with Uni starting on Friday and my use beginning to peak as I ramp up the study again I just thought I would ask...

Hairyleprechaun... no problems... its almost like waiting for the next fix isnt it... lol...

 

[Shadowdh]

Hi there... I have been using the reader a lot lately (fantastic tool for practicing reading while having the dict right there to check makes life soooo much easier) and I am not sure if I have found a bit of a bug that may or may not be known... sometimes when I click out of the reader and into pleco 2's main dicts and I then go back into the reader it will not show the text I was reading just a blank space above the dict window. I have to close P2 and then re open and all is fine. Also I am not sure if this has been brought up (I did do a quick search of this thread as I thought it might be here but nothing) but is there a way to bookmark your place in the reader? I see it has a counter (in the bottom pane that counts up in %) and this is useful and handy but I would like to bookmark the place I was at so I can click on it when I return later (I see an icon in the bottom right corner which could look like a bookmark button but it didn't do anthing that I could see). Right I also (while I am here, sorry for the long and rambling post but these things are coming to mind just now) would like to know if there is the click on a word to get a definition feature when you are reading a word doc? Did I hear something about this or is that just those voices again. Many thanks again Mike for your and your teams hard work. (I assume you have a team cos if it is just you mate when do you sleep!). The more I use P2 the better it gets and when its final you just wont have any competition. Great stuff...

*edit* Ok I just found some info re the bookmark that it has not been connected yet. Also that you can jump in the document by clicking the % button but it is not yet enabled on the PPC (will that be in Beta 4?), and that the pop up definitions will be coming soon... This info was found in the palm crash fix thread... is it all still relevant? cheers

 

[ipsi]

I would say that the bookmark thing not working is simply a feature that will be implemented soon, but hasn't been yet.

Pleco 1.3 could do something similar to 'click on a word and get a definition' thing with Instant Access, but that's been removed from 2.0 due to the amount of trouble it would take to do it well, as I understand it.

Regarding your edit, I imagine that's still on track for Beta 4. It's mostly fairly essential functionality, at least, IMO.

 

[Shadowdh]

Thanks for the info Ipsi...

 

[mikelove]

Thanks for the bug report. We haven't seen this sort of problem in our testing - does this happen consistently or only with a particular document? Is that document stored in internal memory or on an expansion card? That icon you mention is indeed for bookmarks and should definitely work in Beta 4, as should the percentage switch. Same goes with the option to pop up definitions instead of permanently docking the definition area on the screen.

We actually have been toying with bringing back a very limited form of Instant Access on Windows Mobile, though - it really would be impossible on Palm, unfortunately, since there's just no way to fit even a heavily scaled-down version of Pleco 2.0 into the 64k maximum which Palm OS allows for pop-up programs like that, but we may try to get a few common WM applications (Word, SMS/Messaging and IE are the most likely ones) working with it in an experimental way at least. But since you'll also be able to bring up a document reader screen with the contents of the clipboard, in most cases it would probably be faster to just read text that way.