We've now released an updated version of Beta 3 including a couple of new fixes for serious bugs and consolidating all of our recent patches/tweaks/etc in a single update. This does not include any new changes since the most recent Palm and Pocket PC experimental patch releases, so if you're already up and running with those there's no need to install this.
Download archive is available at:http://www.pleco.com/beta/pd2b3a.zip
Audio files: http://www.pleco.com/beta/pd2b3audio.zip - these don't significantly differ from the Beta 1/2 ones, so there's no need to re-download these if you've already downloaded the old ones
Username and password for the beta directory are "plecobeta" and "beijingkaoya".
Note: this software is not finished, will crash on you frequently and may even damage your handheld, so use extreme caution when downloading/installing/using.
This is not a particularly stable release even by our standards, so if you're one of the large group of people who are still waiting to try out 2.0 we'd advise you to keep waiting, at least until Beta 4; we just haven't been able to do as much polishing/debugging as we need to do to recommend this to anyone other than the most die-hard and computer-savvy Pleco users.
Rough installation instructions are included in the download. To obtain your Pleco 2.0 Beta keyfile, log on to the Beta My Orders page (use the above plecobeta username/password to access the page and your regular My Orders username/password to log in once the page is loaded) and activate your software. Choose Ordering from the Help menu in the 2.0 beta to get the required Machine ID code. To purchase new add-ons, activate your software on that Orders page and then click on the appropriate link for the add-on you'd like to purchase.
Make sure to delete ALL of your old Pleco 2.0 Beta data files before installing this; that INCLUDES your flashcards, unfortunately, as the database schema has changed and the software will most likely crash if trying to load an older-version flashcard file. The flashcard schema in this version is not final either, so you should continue to hold off on trying to migrate your cards over to 2.0 as they'll likely be deleted / made unusable again at least once more between now and the finished release.
Major changes in this beta:
- Flashcard configuration interface completely redesigned, as were most of the other flashcard screens to some extent; things like category management should be a lot faster now, plus you can now alternate between multiple test subjects in a single session.
- Document reader also redesigned, and made considerably more usable (though some things like audio / add to flash / resizing / hiding still don't work) - expansion card PalmDoc files now work, preliminary support for the new PlecoDoc format added was and the first such document (Lu Xun's "The Story of Ah Q") is included in the beta distribution. Which is not meant as a showcase of all of PlecoDoc's features (there are several that weren't used) but just as a way to have something in that format to try out.
- New font rendering system on Pocket PC; a little quirky but should be much much (much!) faster on most devices.
Smaller changes but in areas which have gotten a lot of discussion:
- Bug fixed which could cause flashcard databases to become unusable after a soft reset on Palm. (they weren't actually corrupted, the software just didn't know how to merge in the journal file correctly)
- Full-width characters added to Palm OS font files.
- Audio interpreter will now play 5th-tone (toneless) syllables as 1st-tone when it can't find a 5th-tone audio sample.
Some large areas we didn't change much and are still hard at work on:
- The main dictionary / input UI still needs and is getting some significant changes, particularly relating to full-text searches, dictionary switching, recent queries, full-screen handwriting input (doesn't work at all yet), keyboard control, changes to the dictionary search order, and dozens of other little tweaks / fixes.
- Custom dictionaries; we've actually done a lot of the overhaul for this but it's not yet stable enough to even put in a beta, it should be vastly improved in the next one though.
- Flashcard non-text import and all forms of export still don't work, nor do statistics, nor do several of the editing / management options (like multiple fields in the Manage Cards list), nor do a few of the new session options like manually selecting the character set or dictionary sources.
- Several reader options don't work yet either, still.
- General polish everywhere; thanks to the font system changes there are actually some new, even more annoying graphical glitches in this version.
- Preferences / help / dictionary glossaries / other things like that.
Please post feedback in the Beta 3 Feedback Thread and bug reports in the Beta 3 Bug Reports thread, and make sure to read the first posts in those threads first for info on what sorts of feedback we're looking for - we still aren't looking for reports of every minor problem, since there are several hundred of those that we know about and are working to fix.
Beta 4 should hopefully be out within another month or so and should actually be something close to "done" as far as features/design/etc go, but we're not planning to release another beta until we get to that point so it may take a little longer than that.
Download archive is available at:http://www.pleco.com/beta/pd2b3a.zip
Audio files: http://www.pleco.com/beta/pd2b3audio.zip - these don't significantly differ from the Beta 1/2 ones, so there's no need to re-download these if you've already downloaded the old ones
Username and password for the beta directory are "plecobeta" and "beijingkaoya".
Note: this software is not finished, will crash on you frequently and may even damage your handheld, so use extreme caution when downloading/installing/using.
This is not a particularly stable release even by our standards, so if you're one of the large group of people who are still waiting to try out 2.0 we'd advise you to keep waiting, at least until Beta 4; we just haven't been able to do as much polishing/debugging as we need to do to recommend this to anyone other than the most die-hard and computer-savvy Pleco users.
Rough installation instructions are included in the download. To obtain your Pleco 2.0 Beta keyfile, log on to the Beta My Orders page (use the above plecobeta username/password to access the page and your regular My Orders username/password to log in once the page is loaded) and activate your software. Choose Ordering from the Help menu in the 2.0 beta to get the required Machine ID code. To purchase new add-ons, activate your software on that Orders page and then click on the appropriate link for the add-on you'd like to purchase.
Make sure to delete ALL of your old Pleco 2.0 Beta data files before installing this; that INCLUDES your flashcards, unfortunately, as the database schema has changed and the software will most likely crash if trying to load an older-version flashcard file. The flashcard schema in this version is not final either, so you should continue to hold off on trying to migrate your cards over to 2.0 as they'll likely be deleted / made unusable again at least once more between now and the finished release.
Major changes in this beta:
- Flashcard configuration interface completely redesigned, as were most of the other flashcard screens to some extent; things like category management should be a lot faster now, plus you can now alternate between multiple test subjects in a single session.
- Document reader also redesigned, and made considerably more usable (though some things like audio / add to flash / resizing / hiding still don't work) - expansion card PalmDoc files now work, preliminary support for the new PlecoDoc format added was and the first such document (Lu Xun's "The Story of Ah Q") is included in the beta distribution. Which is not meant as a showcase of all of PlecoDoc's features (there are several that weren't used) but just as a way to have something in that format to try out.
- New font rendering system on Pocket PC; a little quirky but should be much much (much!) faster on most devices.
Smaller changes but in areas which have gotten a lot of discussion:
- Bug fixed which could cause flashcard databases to become unusable after a soft reset on Palm. (they weren't actually corrupted, the software just didn't know how to merge in the journal file correctly)
- Full-width characters added to Palm OS font files.
- Audio interpreter will now play 5th-tone (toneless) syllables as 1st-tone when it can't find a 5th-tone audio sample.
Some large areas we didn't change much and are still hard at work on:
- The main dictionary / input UI still needs and is getting some significant changes, particularly relating to full-text searches, dictionary switching, recent queries, full-screen handwriting input (doesn't work at all yet), keyboard control, changes to the dictionary search order, and dozens of other little tweaks / fixes.
- Custom dictionaries; we've actually done a lot of the overhaul for this but it's not yet stable enough to even put in a beta, it should be vastly improved in the next one though.
- Flashcard non-text import and all forms of export still don't work, nor do statistics, nor do several of the editing / management options (like multiple fields in the Manage Cards list), nor do a few of the new session options like manually selecting the character set or dictionary sources.
- Several reader options don't work yet either, still.
- General polish everywhere; thanks to the font system changes there are actually some new, even more annoying graphical glitches in this version.
- Preferences / help / dictionary glossaries / other things like that.
Please post feedback in the Beta 3 Feedback Thread and bug reports in the Beta 3 Bug Reports thread, and make sure to read the first posts in those threads first for info on what sorts of feedback we're looking for - we still aren't looking for reports of every minor problem, since there are several hundred of those that we know about and are working to fix.
Beta 4 should hopefully be out within another month or so and should actually be something close to "done" as far as features/design/etc go, but we're not planning to release another beta until we get to that point so it may take a little longer than that.