Interest in a desktop preview version?

[mikelove]

Would anyone be interested in a preview release of the (Windows) desktop version of PlecoDict? This would essentially just be a direct port of 2.0 for Pocket PC with a few small changes (larger / landscape view, maybe some tabbed text fields, little stuff like that) to make it a bit more usable on desktops. For licensing reasons we'd have to charge for this preview as a separate product (probably with a 20% discount or something along those lines for existing customers), but you would at least get a free upgrade to the "real" desktop version when that became available.

There wouldn't be any built-in flashcard sync capabilities, but since it would share the same database format with the Pocket PC version (and the Palm one too if you put your database on an SD card) you could use it as a sort-of flashcard editor by manually moving your flashcard database file back and forth. And in terms of stability / features / etc it would feel pretty much like a finished product, aside from the small-screen-oriented interface.

We've already got all of the licenses lined up for a desktop version, but we're not likely to have even a beta-test version of it ready until mid-08 or so, so this would be something to tide people over in the meantime; we could easily release this preview alongside the finished handheld version 2.0 without really having to delay that release at all.

 

[Aunty]

I'd be very interested if I had a Windows system, but I only use Mac and Unix. I don't suppose you'd have any idea if it's likely to work under Wine?

I haven't been using the flashcards, but started trying them out again this week. I keep finding errors to fix and cards that I never intend to learn and want to delete, e.g. the wrong wan2 word, but it's too hard to find and fix them on the device when the list is long and foreign and the field truncated. Does the desktop version help with this kind of thing?
.

 

[sfrrr]

I'd love it--and I do have a Windows system (Vista)--and I'd be willing to pay for it. Editing flashcards on my PC would speed things up for me. Would it also edit the user dictionary?

Sandra

 

[mikelove]

Aunty - if it doesn't work under Wine initially we'd certainly try to get it working, possibly even to the point of compiling an "official" Linux version under WineLib; most of the system calls are pretty run-of-the-mill, particularly since we're now using our own font rendering code, so the biggest question is whether the handwriting recognizer DLL would load correctly, and since it barely uses any Windows APIs at all it's pretty likely that it would.

And yes, the UI would still be somewhat simplistic but we could at least scale up the size of the controls to make lists / entries easier to browse.

sfrrr - yes, it would edit the user dictionary too, though I'm not 100% certain we could get it smoothly integrated with Windows' built-in Chinese input methods in the initial release. (but the odds are pretty good, given that unlike Palm OS Windows actually has a standard interface for inserting text into any control and hence we can implement that interface even in our custom text fields)

 

[lmcjipo]

I would be interested in giving it a try as well.

 

[Aunty]

Thanks Mike. FWIW, I don't run Linux either, it's Wine on FreeBSD, but that should make no difference by the sound of it. It's amazing how easily I've got some programs working in that environment.

Of course if there's a Macintosh Desktop program just around the corner, that would be even more convenient for me, but it still might be worth running it up under Wine just in case it works right out of the box which it might.

 

[gato]

For licensing reasons we'd have to charge for this preview as a separate product (probably with a 20% discount or something along those lines for existing customers), but you would at least get a free upgrade to the "real" desktop version when that became available.

Is that 20% off from $99.95 for Pleco Complete (with the ABC Dictionary)? Since I already have ABC with Wenlin on the desktop, I probably wouldn't buy it.

 

[daniu]

Hi!

Of course I would also be interested.

Does that mean that we would have to buy all dictionaries again? One could easily argument that ... just like with 2 PDAs you can only use one version at a time. even I might use my PDA at the same time with my Desktop I cannot really focus on both at the same time ...

I agree that the software is different and needs to be paid but maybe you could do something on the dictionaries?

regards
Daniel

 

[roddy]

Would definitely be interested in this - a desktop version of Pleco would be a godsend, and the sooner I can get my grubby little hands on it the better. I'll even pay for it. :wink:

 

[mikelove]

Aunty - ah, BSD, I spent a whole semester in college hacking away on the BSD kernel... but yes, if it works on one Wine it should work on any Wine. Mac OS is probably a little farther off, unless we can find a way to get Hanwang's never-ported-to-Mac-OS handwriting recognizer working under Darwine too.

gato - might be a little less than $99.95, actually, or a little more, but yes, something around there, so if Wenlin does what you need you might as well stick with that. Though the features we're working on for the "real" desktop version will hopefully make it a more compelling upgrade - aside from desktop screen size / input methods this preview wouldn't really offer anything you don't already have on your PDA, so probably the biggest market for it is people who really want our software but don't want to buy a handheld.

daniu - not a lot of room for flexibility on that, unfortunately; several of our desktop-version licenses are actually completely separate agreements from the handheld ones, with different terms, royalties, etc, so there's really no framework under which we could move licenses between them. But you wouldn't have to buy all of the same dictionaries, of course; you could go with smaller/cheaper ones, in fact we're even considering a dictionary-less bundle of the finished desktop version for people who want to use it as a flashcard/dictionary editor and backup tool but are content to limit themselves to their PDA for actually looking up words.

 

[character]

Though the features we're working on for the "real" desktop version will hopefully make it a more compelling upgrade - aside from desktop screen size / input methods this preview wouldn't really offer anything you don't already have on your PDA, so probably the biggest market for it is people who really want our software but don't want to buy a handheld.

Perhaps the minimalist UI will appeal to people with a UMPC.

Like gato, since I have Wenlin I don't think I'll be interested in this preview.

Other than the dictionaries, is it going to provide much beyond the latest version of "free" tools such as ZDT, etc? Also, in Vista (Business) on a Tablet PC, I've found the Chinese handwriting recognition quite forgiving.

 

[mikelove]

roddy - strange to see you posting here, but thanks!

character - yes, actually we're planning to keep it intact in the finished version as an optional "PDA Mode" or something like that for people who want to run it on their OQOs and Vaio UXes.

There are a couple of very cool things we're working on for the finished version which I'm not ready to talk about yet, but for this release it really is the same set of features as our PDA software, so as far as how it compares to ZDT, our search engine / interface is a bit more advanced, our flashcard system has a lot more options/features/etc, we have a much bigger audio database and for the moment at least a larger stroke order database too, but there is indeed a lot of feature overlap - in fact many of the features ZDT et al have that we don't will likely end up in the finished desktop version.

 

[garysaville]

Mac Desktop Version

When you are ready to beta test a Mac version I would be more than willing to purchase it. I have Wenlin as well, however since I bought Pleco I haven't touched it. Wenlin is the best choice for desktop use at the moment, however it has a very unfriendly interface and it doesn't handle compound words at all.

Best,

Gary

 

[garysaville]

Mac Intel Version

I should have mentioned I'd purchase it if it was native code for the mac. I've had nothing but bad experiences with rosetta translations or desktop Java garbage. They always pig out on Ram and slow down my whole system. A dictionary is an app I keep open all day. It's super important for it to be very stable.


G=-,

 

[Shadowdh]

Put me on the interested list...

 

[mikelove]

garysaville - don't worry, we wouldn't do our official Mac version in Rosetta or Java; Rosetta would just be silly at this point since all new Macs ship with x86 processors, and Java wouldn't make sense for us since all of our cross-platform engine code is written in C. So if/when we do a full Mac port it should be quite fast and stable.

 

[mongrel]

Hello.
I'm a longtime daily lurker who has never owned your product, or a PDA. I registered to post this: Yes, I would be interested in a preview desktop version.
Thanks.

 

[Smoodo]

Not really interested, but..

Pleco functionality the way it is on a PDA, does not translate well to what I use a desktop for. The only reason I'd be interested in a desktop version is for the purpose of starting more conversations to get it the way I want.

I would be interested in quick editing, adding and rearranging flashcard lists. That's it. MAYBE I would look at them on my computer, but I doubt it. It's nice being able to take a hand held PDA and just relax comfortably to go through flashcards.

When I read a Chinese document, sometimes I copy and paste it into Wenlin and just mouse over the words I don't know. These days I get google's translate to go over it too. It breaks the documents in enough sections that I can absorb the meaning and correct for mistakes. I used to ASDOtate docs, but that seems broken these days.

I can't think of anything I'd do on my desktop with single words that Wenlin or "PowerWord" wouldn't do for me. If Pleco were on the desktop, it would have to do everything Wenlin did and more to be appealing. I would certainly get it if I could copy/paste whole documents in some form to mouse over the meanings or have a http://www.newsinchinese.com tooltip effect for the Chinese words happening.

I'm not a dictionary loyalist. I just want answers to my questions. If it comes from NWP, ABC, ADSO, OX, LDC, fine, but if not that's okay too.

 

[gato]

I would certainly get it if I could copy/paste whole documents in some form to mouse over the meanings or have a http://www.newsinchinese.com tooltip effect for the Chinese words happening.

Dimsum can already do this:
http://www.mandarintools.com/dimsum.html

 

[garysaville]

killer dimsum

I tried to use dimsum. I was amazed at all the features for a free program, but it had some HUGE memory leak and stability issues on the Mac. I think it is some sort of Java app. It basically does everything Wenlin does but is nowhere near as stable. It also uses a dictionary with very few examples of usage. As a language learner and a full time language teacher, there is nothing more important to me than a good, flexible dictionary. I had no use for a palm. I bought it solely because a friend showed me Plecodict on his. Now a palm sits next to my laptop all day long. For me it would be really nice to have a well thought out, quality dictionary that could interact with my other apps. Dimsum doesn't cut it, and Wenlin has a prehistoric interface. I'm really hoping Pleco can do a better job.