Bug? Paging through entries breaks after switching dicts

character

状元
2.0.7, iPod Touch 2nd Gen

Set ABC as your dictionary

Pull up the entry for ku4zi (pants; trousers)

See that one can use the up/down arrows to move through defintions

Press the dictionary button to switch to PLC

See that the up/down arrows are disabled -- bug?

Switch back to ABC

See that the up/down arrows are still disabled -- also seems like a bug
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
That's actually normal / by design; the definition dictionary switch button is intended to let you see definitions for the same word in other dictionaries, rather than just performing the original search again in those other dictionaries. If there happens to be more than on entry for the same character / characters (e.g. for characters with multiple pronunciations), the scroll arrows will still appear to let you switch between those, but otherwise they're disabled since there's nothing else to scroll through. (the more restrictive search makes the system work a bit faster too)
 

character

状元
But the arrows remain disabled if I return to the dictionary I started with. It's confusing to have the arrows enabled and then have them disable even though to the user it looks like they have returned Pleco to the same state when the arrows were enabled.

Perhaps we're talking about different things. I'm referring to the up/down arrows in the middle of the nav bar. They seem to cycle through different characters with the same pronounciation.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Still intentional - once you've started switching dictionaries, the arrows serve only to indicate if there are additional entries with the exact same characters that you can scroll to; this is most likely to happen with single-character entries or with strangely-structured user dictionaries, though there are a couple of multi-character entries that have this too, and Adso actually has a lot of multi-character entries like that. In those cases, though, we'd effectively be cutting off that functionality if we returned to the original result list once you got back to the original dictionary: there'd be no way for you to do that "show me other entries with the exact same characters" search in the original dictionary without going back and doing a brand new search.

It sounds like what you really want is to have just one dictionary switch button that works the same way regardless of what screen you're in - i.e., if you tap on the dictionary switch button while viewing a definition, it changes the dictionary for search results in the main screen too, then jumps to the result that matches the one you're currently viewing if it can find it. That's certainly doable as an option (probably off by default, since I personally like the current system better), but it's tricky enough that there's not much chance of it happening until a post-flashcards release. In the meantime, you might prefer combining the result list and definition on one screen as on Palm / WM; you can enable that in portrait orientation through Settings / Dictionary / Overall Interface / Portrait show defn.
 

character

状元
The arrows functionality feels broken to me, whether or not it's working as designed; I'll guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this point.

I think the current dictionary switch functionality is fine, though it would be nice if it was better indicated (perhaps put the dictionary buttons in italics in entries to give some indication that pressing it will not have exactly the same effect as the dictionary button outside of an entry.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
OK. I'm not sure about changing that button icon, though - for advanced users it might help make the distinction between both kinds of dictionary switching clearer, but for less advanced users there are already a confusing enough array of buttons without adding that other icon change to keep track of; it's hard enough just to understand that the button with letters on it has something to do with dictionary switching.
 
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