iPhone Feature Requests

[mikelove]

I also just realized that every time I make a change to the font size in the settings and then flip back to the dictionary I have to actually select a new word to see how the settings are affected - it doesn't automatically update. I was changing the settings before and flipping back and not noticing any changes, so at times I was confused as to whether I was actually modifying the correct setting.

That's a little sloppy programming on our part - we don't want to slow things down by re-drawing all of the text every time you re-enter Dict, but we haven't yet gotten around to getting the Settings screen to signal to the dictionary screen that something interface-related has changed since it was exited.

 

[Alexis]

I was checking out Hanzi Reader, and I really liked how they put a bubble around each group of words (There's an examle screenshot in the app store). Would it be possible to do something like this in Pleco reader?

 

[mikelove]

I was checking out Hanzi Reader, and I really liked how they put a bubble around each group of words (There's an examle screenshot in the app store). Would it be possible to do something like this in Pleco reader?

Doable, but not without slowing things down (witness how long their app takes to load a document) and introducing potential errors if we segment the document incorrectly. We really need a better Chinese text segmentation algorithm, but once we have that a number of things like this should become possible.

 

[caesartg]

Hi Mike

Suggestion for the 'Card Statistics' screen that will make it a bit more useful for those with multiple scorefiles and should be very simple to implement if you decide to:

Under the "Category" select, also include a label "Scorefile" followed with the name of the currently viewed scorefile. Then underneath or beside this, two buttons "<<" ">>" that can be used to navigate to another scorefile, or another selecter similar to the 'Category' select (useful if someone has a LOT of scorefiles I guess).

Otherwise, to achieve the same effect of navigating to a desired scorefile, I have to:
- go back to 'Flashcard'
- select 'Flashcard Testing'
- Select 'Profile'
- Choose a profile
- Go back to 'Flashcard testing'
- go back to 'Flashcards'
- select 'Card statistics'.

It is cumbersome and not intuitive at all.

I have separate scorefiles for listening, speaking, reading and writing (as well as slightly less used ones for passive vocab and english flashcards), so this vastly improves the UI/HCI for looking at multiple scorefiles.

 

[caesartg]

One thing I wanted right from when I started using Pleco was some kind of indication when looking through Chinese text of the characters I've already studied as opposed to those I haven't. I never mentioned it before because I wasn't sure how you'd implement it within the current system. Also, wondered if perhaps it would be too processor intensive.

However, I was wondering, could you not use the defined 'cards learned' scorefile measure to identify which single characters (or potentially also multichar vocab) have been learned, then colour these (or colour the exclusives) in a piece of text? Maybe it's too tied in with how I specifically use Pleco and wouldn't be useful for the majority of users. However, I do think character-based study is inherently useful and being able to look at a document and quickly see which characters I still need to focus on would be a wonderful feature.

Also, very useful for those beginning their study as when they look at the first texts in beginner Chinese textbooks, these gradually build up the characters and vocab from scratch and a highlighter of what hasn't been covered would be rather useful (and save a lot of red ink underlining on the textbooks). If you later did get licences to integrate some textbooks with Pleco, I think this would be a wonderfully enabling feature.

 

[gabor]

One thing I wanted right from when I started using Pleco was some kind of indication when looking through Chinese text of the characters I've already studied as opposed to those I haven't. I never mentioned it before because I wasn't sure how you'd implement it within the current system. Also, wondered if perhaps it would be too processor intensive.

However, I was wondering, could you not use the defined 'cards learned' scorefile measure to identify which single characters (or potentially also multichar vocab) have been learned, then colour these (or colour the exclusives) in a piece of text? Maybe it's too tied in with how I specifically use Pleco and wouldn't be useful for the majority of users. However, I do think character-based study is inherently useful and being able to look at a document and quickly see which characters I still need to focus on would be a wonderful feature.

Also, very useful for those beginning their study as when they look at the first texts in beginner Chinese textbooks, these gradually build up the characters and vocab from scratch and a highlighter of what hasn't been covered would be rather useful (and save a lot of red ink underlining on the textbooks). If you later did get licences to integrate some textbooks with Pleco, I think this would be a wonderfully enabling feature.

Yes, this would be a wonderful feature! Until Its implemented in Pleco, you can try out "Learning With Texts":
http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php ... ith-texts/

 

[gabor]

ABC and Pleco dictionaries both have the ability to display character variations, however I could not find a way to enter such variations into my own entries. These are displayed by slashes, in Wenlin you can create such entries easily by adding slashes between the variations:

托/讬[-/託]

Please add this feature to user dictionaries!

 

[mikelove]

Under the "Category" select, also include a label "Scorefile" followed with the name of the currently viewed scorefile. Then underneath or beside this, two buttons "<<" ">>" that can be used to navigate to another scorefile, or another selecter similar to the 'Category' select (useful if someone has a LOT of scorefiles I guess).

We've actually had the same request on Android a few times now - this one at least should be in 2.3 (though improvements to the actual statistics presented won't happen until 2.4).

However, I was wondering, could you not use the defined 'cards learned' scorefile measure to identify which single characters (or potentially also multichar vocab) have been learned, then colour these (or colour the exclusives) in a piece of text? Maybe it's too tied in with how I specifically use Pleco and wouldn't be useful for the majority of users. However, I do think character-based study is inherently useful and being able to look at a document and quickly see which characters I still need to focus on would be a wonderful feature.

With single characters it might be doable, but most people learn in a word-based way and for that we'd need a better text segmentation algorithm, so that if we run into, say, the string 的确实 we know whether you want 的确 + 实 or 的 + 确实. Though that particular example affects single characters too - don't know how the 的 is pronounced otherwise. We've actually found one good one but it's written in Java and so only usable on Android; we're trying to license a C-based one from somebody in China but it's taking a long time to get through to the people who control the source code.

ABC and Pleco dictionaries both have the ability to display character variations, however I could not find a way to enter such variations into my own entries. These are displayed by slashes, in Wenlin you can create such entries easily by adding slashes between the variations:

托/讬[-/託]

Please add this feature to user dictionaries!

We're actually getting rid of those in ABC (and PLC, though it only uses them for single characters and primarily only traditional ones). They're kind of an ABC-specific quirk, relating to John DeFrancis' desire to get everyone to view a "word" as a combination of pronunciation + meaning rather than a specific set of characters; unfortunately, though, this approach is not shared by any other major dictionaries or by many textbooks / teachers / standardized tests / etc; most other dictionaries handle these situations by creating two separate entries and having one point back to the other.

Accommodating variants creates a lot of problems - flashcard duplicate checking, for example, and viewing a particular definition in alternate dictionaries; one dictionary may skip a particular variant, or may treat it as a separate entry with a slightly different meaning. (editors don't always agree on which characters are variants and which are entirely separate) It makes sense for Wenlin to use them because that's their only dictionary and they don't have to worry about matching up with other data sets, but for us they've never been a great fit and now that we're adding so many more dictionaries and doing more merging of data between them they've become a pretty major headache.

So now the variants will all have separate entries; however, the definitions they link to will show up inline (so no dealing with "variant of" hyperlinks) and we plan to continue listing all of the variants when you view the full entry so that you can still get that info from the dictionaries that provide it. (i.e. you'll still be able to see that ABC considers 托/讬 to be variants of each other even though other dictionaries might not) But after we've had the system for that stabilized for a few releases, we'll probably add a way to create user dictionary entries that likewise seamlessly link to other entries.

 

[kun4]

the 4-corner index number for the character.

(The four-corner method is a way to associate a four digit number with a Chinese character. It is used as a way to lookup characters in some dictionaries)
To get the four-corner code, do the following:

• In addons, install the free dictionary "Unihan Character DB (extended)"
• In Dictionary, switch to the "UNI" dictionary. Verify dictionary installed ok.
• Look up a character, eg. by tapping on it in the dictionary or the document reader. Select "Character Info" (the 字 icon in the top right corner)
• In the "Character info" window, select "Details".
• Choose "Add new field..."
• Select "FourCornerCode"
• "Character info" window now shows four corner code.

HTH

 

[jamesquek]

Audio module

Dear Mike,

I have bought the audio add-on and was a li'l disappointed with the phrases that are not prerecorded. They sounded so mechanical to be useful. I was wondering if the solution might be to shave the pauses of each character enunciation. Also, sometimes, the neutral tone sounds like the first tone.

 

[cjgait]

Thank you for that, but It was actually the lookup part that I was interested in. Every once in a while I can't convince the HWR to find a character and have to turn to a paper 4-corner dictionary. It would be great to have 4-corner lookup in Pleco, particularly if it had wild card ability.

the 4-corner index number for the character.

(The four-corner method is a way to associate a four digit number with a Chinese character. It is used as a way to lookup characters in some dictionaries)
To get the four-corner code, do the following:

• In addons, install the free dictionary "Unihan Character DB (extended)"
• In Dictionary, switch to the "UNI" dictionary. Verify dictionary installed ok.
  ...
  HTH

 

[radioman]

This is interesting. I recently learned that you can use Morse code (yeah... dots and dashes Morse code) to send Chinese characters, where 4 numbers represent the Chinese characters. I wonder if this is the same thing.

Thank you for that, but It was actually the lookup part that I was interested in. Every once in a while I can't convince the HWR to find a character and have to turn to a paper 4-corner dictionary. It would be great to have 4-corner lookup in Pleco, particularly if it had wild card ability.

the 4-corner index number for the character.

(The four-corner method is a way to associate a four digit number with a Chinese character. It is used as a way to lookup characters in some dictionaries)
To get the four-corner code, do the following:

• In addons, install the free dictionary "Unihan Character DB (extended)"
• In Dictionary, switch to the "UNI" dictionary. Verify dictionary installed ok.
  ...
  HTH

 

[mikelove]

Re: Audio module

I have bought the audio add-on and was a li'l disappointed with the phrases that are not prerecorded. They sounded so mechanical to be useful. I was wondering if the solution might be to shave the pauses of each character enunciation. Also, sometimes, the neutral tone sounds like the first tone.

We're dealing with that with a new text-to-speech system we recently licensed - should work for sentences too. Can't offer it as a free upgrade since we have to pay royalties, but we're trying to rig up a way to sell it as a paid upgrade (so you get credit for having already bought the recorded audio) while staying within the limits of Apple's in-app purchasing system.

Thank you for that, but It was actually the lookup part that I was interested in. Every once in a while I can't convince the HWR to find a character and have to turn to a paper 4-corner dictionary. It would be great to have 4-corner lookup in Pleco, particularly if it had wild card ability.

That's been an occasional feature request for quite a few years, but to be honest there's a significant learning curve and we're not sure if enough people would use it - we do need an alternative to radical / handwriting input, but we'd rather come up with some other visual way to find characters (say by selecting multiple non-radical components / stroke counts) that people can use without training. Also, many of the obscure characters that people would be likely to fall back on 4-corner lookups for aren't covered by Unihan's 4-corner data (or weren't when we last checked anyway).

 

[kun4]

It would be great to have 4-corner lookup in Pleco, particularly if it had wild card ability.

This is the unihan database, ordered by four-corner code. Open it in document reader. Is this what you were looking for?
Ideally, one could use this to create an English-Chinese user dictionary.

 

[mikelove]

This is the unihan database, ordered by four-corner code. Open it in document reader. Is this what you were looking for?
Ideally, one could use this to create an English-Chinese user dictionary.

Can't, unfortunately, because our current E-C search system strips out numbers (for the sake of homonyms and the like). Though this may change in a future update.

 

[pprendeville]

Is it possible to have English only in flashcard definitions. I make it a habit to read the sentences listed with the flashcard (usually associate Tuttle's dictionary with the flashcard as it seems to use a graded system which works well for me). Really helps to improve my reading skills. However when I have to translate sentences from English to Chinese I find it difficult a lot of the time. 

Eg: 考试
我们明天考试。 Wǒmen míngtiān kǎoshì. = We're having an examination tomorrow.

Is it possible to only have the English sentence here so I have to do the translation myself? If I'm stuck I can reveal the translation? Or is it possible to have the English sentence appear first so when I scroll down I can hide the translation?

 

[pprendeville]

Possible to have a dictionary of brandnames in China? Karrefour for example, 家乐福. Very handy to know but Im fairly ignorant of other brands including Chinese ones.

 

[mikelove]

Is it possible to only have the English sentence here so I have to do the translation myself? If I'm stuck I can reveal the translation? Or is it possible to have the English sentence appear first so when I scroll down I can hide the translation?

There's no option for that at the moment - to be honest, not all of our dictionaries are semantically tagged well enough to make this possible (e.g. in Tuttle the software doesn't really know where the example sentences are), though we're working on correcting that.

Possible to have a dictionary of brandnames in China? Karrefour for example, 家乐福. Very handy to know but Im fairly ignorant of other brands including Chinese ones.

CC-CEDICT should cover the common ones - maintaining a dictionary of this stuff would be challenging because new brands appear / old brands are changed so often.

 

[Alexis]

Is it possible to have English only in flashcard definitions. I make it a habit to read the sentences listed with the flashcard (usually associate Tuttle's dictionary with the flashcard as it seems to use a graded system which works well for me). Really helps to improve my reading skills. However when I have to translate sentences from English to Chinese I find it difficult a lot of the time. 

Eg: 考试
我们明天考试。 Wǒmen míngtiān kǎoshì. = We're having an examination tomorrow.

Is it possible to only have the English sentence here so I have to do the translation myself? If I'm stuck I can reveal the translation? Or is it possible to have the English sentence appear first so when I scroll down I can hide the translation?

If you don't mind a bit of manual work, you can do this using C-E Flashcards and setting "Show" to "definition":

1) Create a flashcard
2) Convert the flashcard to "custom"
3) Cut and paste the pinyin/english/characters into the definition field. Then from the definition field cut and paste the Characters/English/Pinyin into the appropriate fields.

But, also looking forward to the semantic tagging which will make this possible automatically.

 

[pprendeville]

It is a bit awkward alright. I suppose it would be easier to just edit the text file flashcard (I downloaded them as text files so should be possible) which would be faster. Thanks for advice. 

What is semantic tagging? Have tried googling it but not clear to me what it means.