Button "Simplified/Traditional" / Weird Characters

[ausgang]

Hi Mike,

I didn't find a possibility to have a button to switch between simplified and traditional characters like it is possible on the iphone. Did I miss something in the manual?

I am also encountering some weird characters when I use handwriting recognition (see attachment). (HTC Desire HD, ICS 4.0.3 Custom Rom, Pleco installed through market)

Thanks in advance,
Juergen

 

[ausgang]

it does not just concern handwriting, also dictionary entries and buttons.

After restarting Pleco (means terminating the process) everything seems to be okay until after a few searches the problem reappears.

Is it possible to backup the settings file so that I can reinstall pleco without much effort? Maybe the problem can be solved downloading from the website instead of installing through the market.

 

[mikelove]

I didn't find a possibility to have a button to switch between simplified and traditional characters like it is possible on the iphone. Did I miss something in the manual?

We moved it to a checkbox in Settings / General - we're doing that on the iPhone too, we get an amazing amount of support email from people who trigger that button accidentally and quite a few complaints from people who trigger it accidentally and would prefer something else in that space.

I am also encountering some weird characters when I use handwriting recognition (see attachment). (HTC Desire HD, ICS 4.0.3 Custom Rom, Pleco installed through market)

That one I'm inclined to blame on the custom ROM - this is exactly the sort of thing that happens when people start fiddling around with ICS' hardware acceleration code without testing it on a lot of apps.

Is it possible to backup the settings file so that I can reinstall pleco without much effort? Maybe the problem can be solved downloading from the website instead of installing through the market.

Unfortunately no, but the apps are literally identical, so it's very unlikely that it would make a difference anyway - I'd suggest that you try a different ROM, or see if there's an option in it for some sort of graphical acceleration "compatibility mode."

 

[ausgang]

I already thought thats on behalf of the custom ROM. Is it possible to backup the settings-file, so that I don't have to adjust all the settings again when going back to the stock rom?

Traditional/Simplified: Thats really disappointing. I used this feature a lot to memorize the traditional chars. I considered the fast switch very educational. Now i have to press six times as often.

Maybe its possible to change the checkbox to show/hide the switch button (default hide, so that the people complaining about "accidentally" pushing).

 

[mikelove]

I already thought thats on behalf of the custom ROM. Is it possible to backup the settings-file, so that I don't have to adjust all the settings again when going back to the stock rom?

Sadly no - it's been a much-requested feature but it's a surprisingly large amount of work; we have to make sure if someone, say, exports some settings from a tablet and imports them on a phone, there's no possibility for a tablet-specific setting (maybe one that isn't even user-accessible on a phone) to screw things up. Likewise with different versions of Pleco, different platforms, etc... we could surround it with all sorts of warnings, but we'd still at the very least have to have some sort of "emergency recovery" option so somebody could reset all of their settings to default if they managed to screw things up by doing something we told them not to do.

Traditional/Simplified: Thats really disappointing. I used this feature a lot to memorize the traditional chars. I considered the fast switch very educational. Now i have to press six times as often.

It's still accessible through the menu command "Character Set" in the separate definition screen. Frankly, in the 8 months since the first Android beta debuted (also with that button missing) you're the first person to complain about this, so while I understand it might be useful in some situations I don't think it really needs quite as prominent a position as it has on iOS.

Maybe its possible to change the checkbox to show/hide the switch button (default hide, so that the people complaining about "accidentally" pushing).

But the question is where we'd put it - not really a lot of toolbar space, and in fact there's going to be even less of it once we optimize our app for Android 4.0 since we'll have to find somewhere to put the now-mandatory onscreen menu button. However, with 4.0 we also have a bit more flexibility regarding menus and can probably add a 7th "character set" button to the menu on the main screen without screwing things up too badly.

 

[johnh113]

Traditional/Simplified: Thats really disappointing. I used this feature a lot to memorize the traditional chars. I considered the fast switch very educational. Now i have to press six times as often.

It's still accessible through the menu command "Character Set" in the separate definition screen. Frankly, in the 8 months since the first Android beta debuted (also with that button missing) you're the first person to complain about this, so while I understand it might be useful in some situations I don't think it really needs quite as prominent a position as it has on iOS.

Maybe its possible to change the checkbox to show/hide the switch button (default hide, so that the people complaining about "accidentally" pushing).

But the question is where we'd put it - not really a lot of toolbar space, and in fact there's going to be even less of it once we optimize our app for Android 4.0 since we'll have to find somewhere to put the now-mandatory onscreen menu button. However, with 4.0 we also have a bit more flexibility regarding menus and can probably add a 7th "character set" button to the menu on the main screen without screwing things up too badly.

Dear Mike,

I agree with ausgang. I study simplified, but I have a lot of Taiwanese friends. So I frequently use the "traditional/simplified" button on my ios Pleco to show them a word. I would be disappointed if it disappeared in the redesign.

John

 

[mikelove]

I agree with ausgang. I study simplified, but I have a lot of Taiwanese friends. So I frequently use the "traditional/simplified" button on my ios Pleco to show them a word. I would be disappointed if it disappeared in the redesign.

Well since we do already offer it on iOS we probably won't get rid of it altogether on that, but it'll likely be relegated to an off-by-default option and you'll probably have to give up some other new button to get it back - unfortunately it's just not popular enough to merit its current placement.

 

[Albannach]

On my tablet (an Acer Iconia A500), I can't get rid of the simplified characters. From a pedagogic point of view, having alternatives appearing is a hindrance. In the General Settings I can turn traditional characters on, but there doesn't seem a way to turn the simplified ones off. So I get entries like this:

幾[几]

Is there any way to get rid of the entry in the squared brackets?

 

[mikelove]

On my tablet (an Acer Iconia A500), I can't get rid of the simplified characters. From a pedagogic point of view, having alternatives appearing is a hindrance. In the General Settings I can turn traditional characters on, but there doesn't seem a way to turn the simplified ones off. So I get entries like this:

幾[几]

Is there any way to get rid of the entry in the squared brackets?

Sure - right below the traditional character option is a "Headword character mode" one, set that to "One set only."