Feature Request: List characters containing "x" as component

[ryan erwin]

Mike-

For me, Pleco has all but replaced Wenlin due to Pleco's excellent collection of high quality dictionaries. That is except for Wenlin's list of components on each characters description page and the list characters containing x as component. This feature is very useful for:
* Fastest method of locating characters that you recognize a portion of but aren't certain how to pronounce
* Helps you to memorize characters by creating links between characters based on visual similarity

For example:
Lookup：直
Returns: The modern form contains 十 (shí) 'ten', 目 (mù) 'eye' and 一 a horizontal stroke.
And the 2nd link below is: "> list characters containing 直 as a component"

Pressing the link returns the following list:

214 真 [zhēn] true; really
401 德 [dé] virtue; 道德 dàodé ethics; 德国 Germany (Deutchland)
624 值 [zhí] (值得 zhíde) be worth; (价值 jiàzhí) value
837 置 [zhì] put, place; 位置 wèizhi position
1406 植 [zhí] to plant; 植物 zhíwù plant
1913 殖 [zhí] 繁殖 breed, reproduce; 殖民地 colony ([shi] 骨殖)
---- 矗 [chù] 矗立 chùlì (书) stand tall and upright
==== 埴 [zhí] (埴土 zhítǔ) clay
==== 淔 [chì] [zhí]
==== 犆 [zhí] [tè] (Unihan special
==== 稙 [zhī] early-planted/maturing (grain)
End of list. Total 11 items.
This list was produced with "Hanzi filter" (in the Options menu) set to "15,442 combined GB/Big5 Hanzi only".

Additionally, the "list words" function is also very useful:
- list words containing 直 (most common words first)
- list words starting with 直 (in alphabetical order)

For example, here is the wenlin page for 直:

In particular, these are the two items that would be extremely useful if integrated into Pleco - both handheld and desktop versions:

Last, here is the Pleco page showing the result of the "characters containing 直 as a component":

---
Ryan Erwin
MSN / AIM / iChat: ryanerwin@mac.com | Skype ID: ryanerwin
Email: ryanerwin@mac.com
Website: http://www.ryanerwin.com

 

[johnh113]

Dear Mike,

Just a vote of agreement with Ryan. I like his idea.

John

 

[mikelove]

This is coming in 2.1, I think, or something very similar to it - we've actually licensed Wenlin's wonderful data set for this, it's first being deployed on iPhone (and soon after Palm/WM) as a new data set for stroke order diagrams (and possibly an alternate / more Song-like font for headword characters - for some reason none of the iPhone's built-in Chinese fonts seem to be very serif-y), but the same data also breaks down characters into their components and hence makes it easy to list components / search by component. We just haven't designed a good interface for the search part yet (number of tricky questions there, e.g. how do we provide a good way to enter those components).

 

[radioman]

Even without a great/new interface for component parts, I believe there could be quick and very useful benefit if Wenlin (or similarly Tuttle's Learning Chinese Characters") definitions were added to a Pleco Dictionary.

I have been doing some experimentation. My perception is that Pleco, would provide fantastic support, even without any interface makeover (of course I am sure there could be room for optimization...).

For instance, look up a word, and there are the parts. As long as the components can be clicked, they can race through the various Pleco dictionaries and find and define the parts. Once you have seen what you need to, you can just hit the "browse back" button and see the next one. So even without a slick way to enter the parts, this would be very useful as it stands and still allow access to breaking down of parts.