Posted here:
http://www.pleco.com/beta/pd2b5-palmdbtest.zip (Palm OS only)
This incorporates a number of improvements to the flashcard and user dictionary database system on Palm, which should both improve stability and reduce file size. It also adds a Stop button to the flashcard import screen, along with improving the import screen's responsiveness to Palm OS system events, so you should be able to stop in the middle of imports (it may take a few seconds to wind down) and you should no longer have to wait several minutes after an import finishes for your Palm to become responsive again (or have it soft reset on you). It also includes some newly-accelerated code for the inner loops of two big flashcard functions (Manage Flashcards searches and new sessions), which should make those run significantly faster - simple searches like All Flashcards or a Random (as opposed to Frequency-Adjusted or Repetition-Spaced) flashcard session should be almost instantaneous, even with 10,000+ cards.
There's also another experimental version included in this archive, named Pleco 2-vfs.prc, which in addition to the other changes stores flashcard databases directly in a Palm's internal flash memory instead of as a regular Palm database. (this only works on Palms using flash memory for file storage, i.e. those running Palm OS 5.4 or later) This can result in significant performance improvements, especially for write-intensive operations (like flashcard imports), but has not been as well-tested as the regular database system. It'll only create the flashcard database in that internal store if it doesn't find one anywhere else, so make sure to remove your existing flashcard database before launching it. To access files in that internal flash memory, install FileZ and enable its "Show Hidden Volumes" preference option and the internal store will appear like any other Palm volume - you'll see the flashcards listed there as PlecoFlash.pqb. (it's a standard SQLite format file, so you can open it in a SQLite-management utility like this, something not possible with regular Palm databases) If this works well for people we'll make it an option in the official version, along with providing a utility to move flashcard databases between the two locations.
(incidentally, a quick way to check whether a flashcard database is corrupted is to open it up in a utility like that and execute the command "pragma integrity_check;" - won't catch every possible type of corruption, but we've never yet encountered a corrupted database that didn't result in an error in that check)
To try out one of these experimental versions, simply install it over the regular Beta 5 application and it'll replace it. The version will appear in the about box as 2.0b5(pf) for the improved version without the new internal memory storage, and 2.0b5(pf-vfs) for the improved version with it. There's a small chance that the changes we've made might cause corruption in old flashcard databases, so we strongly recommend backing up your flashcards / user dictionaries before installing this.
http://www.pleco.com/beta/pd2b5-palmdbtest.zip (Palm OS only)
This incorporates a number of improvements to the flashcard and user dictionary database system on Palm, which should both improve stability and reduce file size. It also adds a Stop button to the flashcard import screen, along with improving the import screen's responsiveness to Palm OS system events, so you should be able to stop in the middle of imports (it may take a few seconds to wind down) and you should no longer have to wait several minutes after an import finishes for your Palm to become responsive again (or have it soft reset on you). It also includes some newly-accelerated code for the inner loops of two big flashcard functions (Manage Flashcards searches and new sessions), which should make those run significantly faster - simple searches like All Flashcards or a Random (as opposed to Frequency-Adjusted or Repetition-Spaced) flashcard session should be almost instantaneous, even with 10,000+ cards.
There's also another experimental version included in this archive, named Pleco 2-vfs.prc, which in addition to the other changes stores flashcard databases directly in a Palm's internal flash memory instead of as a regular Palm database. (this only works on Palms using flash memory for file storage, i.e. those running Palm OS 5.4 or later) This can result in significant performance improvements, especially for write-intensive operations (like flashcard imports), but has not been as well-tested as the regular database system. It'll only create the flashcard database in that internal store if it doesn't find one anywhere else, so make sure to remove your existing flashcard database before launching it. To access files in that internal flash memory, install FileZ and enable its "Show Hidden Volumes" preference option and the internal store will appear like any other Palm volume - you'll see the flashcards listed there as PlecoFlash.pqb. (it's a standard SQLite format file, so you can open it in a SQLite-management utility like this, something not possible with regular Palm databases) If this works well for people we'll make it an option in the official version, along with providing a utility to move flashcard databases between the two locations.
(incidentally, a quick way to check whether a flashcard database is corrupted is to open it up in a utility like that and execute the command "pragma integrity_check;" - won't catch every possible type of corruption, but we've never yet encountered a corrupted database that didn't result in an error in that check)
To try out one of these experimental versions, simply install it over the regular Beta 5 application and it'll replace it. The version will appear in the about box as 2.0b5(pf) for the improved version without the new internal memory storage, and 2.0b5(pf-vfs) for the improved version with it. There's a small chance that the changes we've made might cause corruption in old flashcard databases, so we strongly recommend backing up your flashcards / user dictionaries before installing this.
. I've now fixed, I think, the majority of the duplicates in my NPCR database (and I'll upload a new one soon). A couple of things strike me about that, but I'll post those in the regular feedback thread.